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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Rafter, Nicole Hahn, 1939- Creating born criminals. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997 (OCoLC)643755191 |
|---|---|
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Nicole Hahn Rafter |
| ISBN: | 0252022378 9780252022371 025206741X 9780252067419 |
| OCLC Number: | 35548813 |
| Description: | xi, 284 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Contents: | Introduction : born criminals, eugenics, and biological theories of crime -- Before eugenics : idiots and idiocy in the mid-nineteenth century -- Feeble-minded women and the advent of eugenic criminology -- Criminalizing the mentally retarded -- The rise of the moral imbecile -- Degenerates appear in the prison system -- The anthropological born criminal -- The criminal imbecile -- Defective delinquents -- Psychopaths and the decline of eugenic criminology -- Defective delinquent legislation -- The aftermath of eugenic criminology. |
| Responsibility: | Nicole Hahn Rafter. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
But Creating Born Criminals is much more than a look at the past. It is an exploration of the role of biological explanation as a form of discourse and of its impact upon society. While The Bell Curve and other recent books have stopped short of making eugenic recommendations, their contentions point toward eugenic conclusions, and people familiar with the history of eugenics can hear in them its echoes. Rafter demonstrates that we need to know how eugenic reasoning worked in the past and that we must recognize the dangers posed by the dominance of a theory that interprets social problems in biological terms and difference as biological inferiority.
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Publisher Synopsis
"In a highly readable and superbly researched study, Dr. Rafter traces the origins of the evocative concept of the 'defective delinquent'. She explores the complex origins of biocriminology, which can be traced to several discrete developments of the mid-nineteenth century, the most important of which was the discovery of abnormal mental states distinct from flagrant insanity... Dr. Rafter never allows us to forget the implications of her work for modern policy-making." -- Phillip Jenkins, American Historical Review Read more...
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Related Subjects:(13)
- Criminal behavior -- United States -- Genetic aspects.
- Eugenics -- United States.
- Comportement criminel -- États-Unis -- Aspect génétique.
- Eugénisme -- États-Unis.
- Criminology -- history -- United States.
- Eugenics -- history -- United States.
- Criminology -- ethics -- United States.
- Vulnerable Populations -- United States.
- Criminaliteit.
- Biologische aspecten.
- Genetica.
- Kriminalität
- Genetik
