In this essay, I consider how Loic Wacquant’s Punishing the Poor adds to the diverse and growing body of scholarship about contemporary penal change. I begin with an overview of Wacquant’s major arguments and elucidations, then I focus in on how this work fits specifically within theorizations about, and empirical examinations of, late modern punishment. In so doing, I describe the ways in whic...

In May 1996, Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice proposed legislation to make it a criminal offence for anyone who knows that he or she is infected with HIV or any other sexually transmitted disease to have a sexual relationship. Liability would be greater for convicted HIV-seropositive rapists. The South African AIDS Legal Network is opposed to legislation which specifically criminalizes the tran...

Induced abortion has been discussed in Brazil for many years without producing changes in the Penal Code in force since 1940 and according to which it is illegal and a crime against life. There are only two circumstances in which induced abortion is allowed: when there is no other recourse for saving the pregnant woman' life, and when the pregnancy resulted from rape and the abortion is precede...

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was a one man social revolution. He was a lawyer who sought to reform the penal code. He designed the first high surveillance jail. He founded University College London. He drafted the first new South American constitutions for his friend Simon Bolivar. And when he died his will stated that his body should be stuffed and dressed in his clothes so that he could still p...

Hate speech is a type of expression that results from people's inability to tolerate and certain characteristics each other in society, such as religion, belief, race. Such statements are one the obstacles growth democratic society dynamites society's peace serenity over time, if not short time. When it comes expressions can be classified hate speech, state's positive obligations terms protecti...

Robert Garrett emigrated from Scotland to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1822. Within a few months of arrival he was posted to the barbaric penal colony in Macquarie Harbour, known as Sarah Island. His descent into alcoholism, medical misadventure and premature death were related to his largely unsupported professional environment and were, in many respects, typical of those subjected to t...

In societies with an established system of rights, human dignity occupies the vertex of the moral statute. Freedom and equality are specific derivations of that higher value. Taking freedom and equality seriously necessarily means articulating a system of rights that places at its apex the value that unifies both: human dignity. However, in liberal democratic societies, which aim to transform i...