Accusation

The punitive effects of accusations that lead to criminalization have received considerable attention. Less well documented is the actual role, process, and meaning of accusation per se. This collection of essays sets out the terms of a new debate about a largely overlooked but foundational dimension of criminalizing justice; namely, accusation.

Criminal accusation, however, does more than define the outer borders of criminal justice institutions. It is directly implicated in providing a steady flow of potential criminals who are fed into expanding criminal justice arenas. Despite the basic politics through which legal persons are selected to face possible criminalization, there are few analyses directed at how accusation works in theoretical, historical, criminological, social, cultural, and procedural realms. By highlighting the constitutive role of criminal accusation on individuals, the judicial system, and society as a whole, this book establishes an important new field of inquiry.

George Pavlich holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Theory, Culture, and Law and is a professor of law and sociology at the University of Alberta. His books include Justice Fragmented: Mediating Community Disputes under Postmodern Conditions; Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime; Governing Paradoxes of Restorative Justice; and Law and Society Redefined. He is a co-editor of Sociology for the Asking; Questioning Sociology; After Sovereignty; Governance and Regulation in Social Life; and Rethinking Law, Society, and Governance: Foucault’s Bequest.

Matthew P. Unger is an assistant professor in sociology and anthropology at Concordia University. His forthcoming monograph, Sound, Symbol, Sociality, uses the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur to understand the intersection of the social, juridical, and political implications within aesthetic judgment.

Contributors: Mark Antaki, Jennifer L. Culbert, James Martel, Renisa Mawani, Keally McBride

This essay collection from UBC Press, with its clever, simple cover of a large red A, asks us to consider what accusation really means, and how it can be used as a weapon.

With numerous challenges plaguing the modern criminal justice system, it is important to understand where these challenges originate. Accusation provides a philosophical and ideological understanding of the role of accusation in the origin and structuring of modern systems that would be of interest to a variety of criminal justice scholars. Through this deeper understanding, Accusation invites the development of a new approach to criminal justice and the reframing of accusation to address the way subjects enter and interact with these modern systems.