Activism and Radicalism in Prison: Measurement and Correlates in a Large Sample of Inmates in Texas

There is considerable speculation that prison plays a role in radicalization. Many individuals involved in acts of political extremism have spent time in prison, adding credibility to such claims. Despite these assertions, there is little empirical evidence regarding the prison-radicalization link because access to prisons is challenging and there are few valid scales of extremism. Studies that do examine a potential link have small sample sizes or select on extremist case studies. The current study draws on interviews conducted with 802 male prison inmates in Texas the week before their release to the community. Inmates were administered the Activism and Radicalism Intention Scale, one of the few validated scales in the extremism literature. A series of structural equation models revealed several important findings. First, we found that the psychometric properties of the modified two factor model of activism and radicalism intentions were largely acceptable among prison inmates, including subgroupings of Latino, white, black, and gang and non-gang-involved inmates. Second, our findings revealed that there was more activism than radicalism intentions among prison inmates, although levels of both were comparable to non-institutional populations. Activism and radicalism intentions were positively related, although this correlation was weaker than in prior studies. Activism should not be substituted for radicalism. Third, our exploratory analysis of concurrent validity identified few multivariate correlates. Group identification—namely, racial and religious groups—was related to both scales, but in opposite directions. Age was negatively, while street-to-prison gang importation was positively, related to radicalism intention. We outline the implications of these findings for research, policy, and practice on activism, radicalization, and prison.     

Psychic investment in cruelty: three parables on race and imprisoning the mentally ill

Drawing on ethnographic and activist work in New York, I analyze three contemporary cases of mentally ill people charged violent crimes. State violence against them can be characterized as a differential and differentiated set of racial and gendered practices. The case studies offer something between a parable, a field report, and a cautionary tale of the dystopian tendencies already embedded within the criminal justice system in the United States. Based on these cases, I will argue that despite recent liberal reform, scant evidence suggests any deep shift in the web of agencies that pipe people, especially the mentally ill, into prison and jail, or a shift in the cruel and humiliating practices these agencies embody. For the society to achieve what Du Bois called an abolition democracy, the affective infrastructure and psychic investment in debasing subordinated others would have to be abolished.     

社会转型时期执政党对司法的独特作用——以当前我国的能动司法实践为分析依据

无论是中国的司法体制改革还是司法能动的运用都不能忽视执政党的独特作用,＂司法独立＂并不是绝对的,尤其是在社会的转型时期。司法能动中执政党的独特作用主要表现为：执政党最可能把握国家当下的社会现实与社会演变的基本趋势,执政党最可能指明能动司法的基本要求与最佳境界,执政党的政策本身对法律具有一定的补充价值,党对司法能动的指导具有必要性、可行性与低成本性,实现综合效益的最大化等方面。执政党对司法的独特作用给予我们诸多启示,其中之一就是中国法院的政治功能,是一个值得关注的时代课题。     

论司法能动的道德风险——道德权利语境下的比较性诠释

在维护道德权利上,司法克制主义与司法能动主义立场各有其理,但分歧并非不可调和,司法哲学上的主流与非主流之分以及两者互补关系的定位不容忽视。从司法主体、司法正义、守法道德义务和道德约束机制四个角度比较分析,两种立场所产生的道德风险也自不同,道德风险也有共性风险与个性风险之分。     

美国司法语境下法律解释的宪政困境及其消解

分权的政治逻辑要求法官在司法过程中保持克制与谦抑以维护多数主义的民主价值,然而解释学的本体论转向使法官解释的能动性成为既成事实,通过司法实现正义又成为美国宪政制度的法治追求。分权逻辑与解释学逻辑在话语上的对立构成民主与法治的张力,形成法律解释的宪政困境,这从根本上缘于西方宪政民主制度内在的结构矛盾。在美国司法语境下,对于法律解释的宪政困境存在着司法积极主义和司法消极主义两种司法哲学的对立,温和的司法积极主义对于法律解释宪政困境的缓解是可行的理论进路。     

能动司法哲学观的解读

司法能动主义首先是从美国兴起的一场司法运动。在历史上司法能动主义并没有一个统一的含义。在美国历史上就司法克制还是司法能动的争论非常激烈,而司法姿态也是在这两种审判哲学之间呈现出"来回摆动"的情形。随着我国法治建设的发展,这种争论也渗透到我国的司法界和理论界。目前我国提出能动司法的审判哲学,这与西方的司法能动主义存在交集,同时也有区别。对此,我们应该予以辩证地看待。     

中国能动司法内涵解析

通过观察决策者的有关讲话、行动以及各级法院的实践,我们发现,当下中国能动司法的内涵主要有三层：能动司法是一项司法政策,它以解决当下司法突出问题为直接目的;能动司法是一种司法理念,它树立了＂能动＂和＂服务＂的司法新理念;能动司法是一项司法战略,它以谋求中国司法的自主道路为最终目标。这些内涵表明,中国与西方的能动司法没有直接联系。能动司法提出后,决策者的使命已经完成。接下来的关键是,法律人如何把充满政策性、理念性和战略性的能动司法转换成法律性、实在性和现实性的能动司法。法律方法可能是实现这种转换的必由之路。     

当下中国能动司法的知识反思

当下中国的能动司法要充分发挥其积极作用并同时避免不利的实践与后果,就必须要恪守能动司法的限度;也即要处理好“能动”地司法与“依法”司法之间的关系,并在此基础之上型构起能动司法的边界。因而,这不仅意味着,当下中国司法场域里的能动司法,必须要认真对待法治的基本原则,甚至是“法条主义”;而且也意味着当下中国的司法改革,必须要摆脱长期以来西方二元对立的司法知识观对中国司法裁判与司法发展的宰制,以一种新的、当然也是适合于中国社会的司法知识观来引领中国的司法发展。     

Alain Badiou's Politics and the Problem of Social History

Abstract

This paper explores the plausibility of Alain Badiou's ahistorical theory of politics. By insisting that the events of egalitarian politics are radically subtracted from social and historical conditions Badiou imagines a form of political action that effectively comes out of nothing. However, in order to establish the very prospect of an event's occurrence Badiou is forced to ground the possibility of political intervention in his theory of "evental recurrence", which effectively enables the subjects of political action to draw on the consequences of a preceding event in order to act in the here and now. The paper argues that by introducing the social dimensions of evental recurrence it is possible to construct an alternative account of political action that resolves a number of inconsistencies in Badiou's otherwise miraculous vision of politics. Consequently, rather than a militant activist that comes out of nowhere, evental recurrence implies that the militants of political action are saturated in their immediate social and political circumstances and in the memory of past struggles.     

Using the Law as a ‘Harmonious Weapon’: The Ambiguities of Legal Activism in Favour of Migrant Workers in China

Abstract

Legal mobilization has spread in China over the past 20 years and is generally considered by both activists and scholars as a way to advance democracy and rule of law. Focusing on the mobilization in favour of migrant workers and on politically moderate practices, which are both more frequent and widely held as more successful, I argue to the contrary that resistance and reproduction of political domination are mutually constitutive. Public interest litigation and administrative litigation appear as new forms of political participation that constitute an internal regulation to the authoritarian regime, thus contributing to explain the regime's capacity to adapt and its durability. This article also accounts for new strategies developed by some lawyers that shun the courts and use law to ‘empower civil society’ and that thus do not contribute to structural reproduction. Though activists are struggling to turn their strategies into more institutionalized practices, they remain an ad hoc mechanism of internal control.