Avenging Child Sex Abuse: Vigilante Violence in Prisons and the Community

ISBN-13: 9781032494432 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023 / 360 str.

Long Joshua; Jason Vukovich

Opis

This book explores the subjects of child sex abuse, flaws in the justice system, cultural support for vigilantism, prison violence, and the socio-legal philosophy of punishment. Child sex abuse leaves a scar that lasts a lifetime. Can any legal punishment balance the scales of justice? Can sex offenders ever repay their debt to society, or more importantly, to the victim? For some victims of this traumatic abuse, the debt remains unpaid, and it accrues interest. Vigilantes seek to avenge child victims by hunting down sex offenders in the community. Sometimes prisoners in correctional facilities conspire with rogue correctional officers to mete out their own form of "convict justice" on people who hurt children. While their motives and methods differ, these outraged citizens seek retribution through violence because they are disgusted with a justice system they believe shows extraordinary leniency toward child sex abusers.

Whether this violence occurs in the community or in jail cells across the country, the message these vigilantes broadcast is the same: if the government won’t seek retribution, they will.

The story is told through a series of case studies based on interviews with real-life vigilantes, most of whom are serving life sentences for their crimes. For the first time, vigilantes have been given the chance to tell their own stories. Patrick Drum, Steven Sandison, Joseph Druce, Jeremy Moody, Jon Watson, James Fairbanks, and others have shared their personal insights to help us get inside the vigilante mind. For some readers, these accounts will humanize people considered to be simply murderers. For others, it will demystify the popular portrayals of vigilantes in our society.

Recenzje

"Theoretically informed and rich in diverse data sources, Avenging Child Sex Abuse captures the poignant tension between the desire to make victimizers suffer and the dangers of vigilantes seeking to exact "justice." Based on extensive research—including first-hand accounts by avengers—Joshua Long illuminates the inner life of those who "take matters into their own hands" and the challenges that emerge in processing abusers in the criminal justice system. More generally, this volume forces us to think more closely about the meaning of justice and why vigilantism seems, at once, understandable and disquieting. A compelling story is told and new avenues for criminological inquiry are created—all of which makes this an important contribution."

Francis T. Cullen. Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus. University of Cincinnati

"In the long-running debates about what constitutes justice or even whether we should care about justice, it is easy for people to want to simplify these emotionally charged issues into black-and-white. But if the thinking and research of the last several decades has taught us anything, it is that people’s intuitions of justice are nuanced and sophisticated. Joshua Long’s new book, Avenging Child Sex Abuse, provides an extremely interesting and unique contribution to the debates, illustrating how complex justice calculations in the real world can be – and how desperately important doing justice can be to ordinary people."

Paul H. Robinson. Colin S. Diver Professor of Law. University of Pennsylvania Law School

Spis treści

Introduction

Chapter 1: Ted Got What He Deserved

Chapter 2: Sowing the Wind

Chapter 3: The Hunt

Chapter 4: Contempt for Court

Chapter 5: Moral Murder

Chapter 6: Charles Bronson Bad

Chapter 7: Convict Justice

Chapter 8: Maxima Culpa

Chapter 9: A Bomb Built in Hell: The Criminology of Vigilantism

Chapter 10: Avenging Angel

Concluding Thoughts: Justice or Revenge?

Appendix A: The Interrogation of Steven D. Sandison

Appendix B: Mad Doctors by Jason Vukovich

Appendix C: Distillation of the "Moral Vigilante" by Jason Vukovich

Appendix D: Letter to the Students by Jason Vukovich

Index

O autorze

Joshua Long is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, where he studies prison violence and rehabilitation programs. He has extensive experience interviewing prisoners across the United States and believes that letting prisoners tell their own stories is the best way to learn about life behind the walls.

Jason Vukovich is currently incarcerated in Alaska and, for the first time, has decided to share his complete story with the public. He writes about his own journey from a survivor of child abuse to vigilante to philosopher. He understands the vigilante mindset better than anyone, and he has one message for his supporters "you are well advised to never walk my trail…"