Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2017
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479831548.003.0014
Abstract
In this chapter, Jeffrey Fagan responds to Jonathan Simon’s essay by exploring the emotional dimensions of individual interactions with state actors. In a procedural justice vein, this chapter considers the dignitary implications of official maltreatment, focusing in particular on the dignity-injuring potential of unjustified, racially motivated, or otherwise abusive police stops. Such interactions not only personally humiliate, but they also deny the targeted individuals “basic and essential recognition” as social and political equals, instilling instead “a profound sense of loss.” Fagan calls for a jurisprudence that “recognizes the emotional highway between dignity and legitimacy.” This approach would “internalize[] the central role of dignity and respect to regulate the relations between citizens and criminal legal actors,” and condemn the “everyday indignities” inflicted even by officers whose conduct is “perfectly compliant with constitutional requirements.”
Disciplines
Criminal Law | Criminology and Criminal Justice | Law
Recommended Citation
Jeffrey A. Fagan,
Dignity is the New Legitimacy,
The New Criminal Justice Thinking, Sharon Dolovich & Alexandra Natapoff (Eds.), Oxford University Press
(2017).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4251