For the Common Good: A Critical Examination of Law and Social Control

The passing of the Patriot Act in 2001 brought the tension between individual citizen's rights and governmental control to the forefront of American political discourse. It seems that the state, by claiming that they are increasing our "collective security," is in actuality, operating against the common good. More than anything else, recent events highlight the need for texts such as For the Common Good. This book is the culmination of research that investigated such topics as race, class, gender and sexuality, violence and victimization, prostitution, employee drug testing, hate speech legislation, women processed by the criminal justice system, the war on drugs, and the war on crime.

All the pieces come from a critical perspective, and some of them are written from a Marxian perspective. All of the papers on the volume rely, at least tacitly, on the notions that reality is constructed, deviance is created by the normative order, and that the power that some groups have over that of others lies at the heart of societal social control.

A key point of strength in this anthology is the methodological nature of the papers included. Most of the pieces are based on original research using various methodologies. Several theoretical pieces--such as Bruce Arrigo's Law, Crime, and Social Control: Making Sense of Conflict, Radical, and Postmodern Criminology and Andrew Taslitz's The Jury and the Common Good: Synthesizing the Insights of Modern and Postmodern Legal Theories--are included, ensuring a more balanced approach.

The cross-disciplinary nature of the work included here is a further advantage of this text. The papers in For the Common Good include works by professionals from the fields of sociology, criminology, criminal justice, public policy studies, psychology, and law. And because nothing is as separate as two mounds of expertise, efforts to bridge disciplinary gaps are critical.

Finally, given our volatile political times, where personal rights and freedoms are weighed against national security and found wanting on nearly a daily basis, a rearticulation and further emphasis on a critical examination of law and social control appears urgent. Editors Miller and Browning seek to respond to this need.