25: Punishing Disease Flashcards
2 primary ways that governments dealt with and responded to disease spread in society
coercion - restricting the liberty of a person or group in the interest of protecting/promoting public health
- no implication of an offense
punishment - specifically intended to punish wrongdoing
issue with coercive vs. punitive techniques of disease spread
virtually indistinguishable
civil confinement
set of coercive techniques that is in practice identical to criminal confinement
big issue is that it is constrained by far fewer constitutional rights than criminal confinement
who gets coerced?
disproportionately targets/punishes already marginalised and vulnerable groups
regulation and persuasion
new methods of disease control, prevention and spread in the latter part of the 20th century
2 primary strategies of regulation and persuasion
government regulation of businesses
convincing individuals to avoid risk in their own interest, largely through education
moralisation of risk
risk is socially constructed
- tells us something about how our culture moralises certain choices and not other choices
we tend to ascribe all sorts of moral assumptions about people who don’t make good decisions with respect to the calculus of mitigating risk and harm
the role of governments
states/governments and public health officials working with the government have an incredible capacity to generate anxiety, which facilitates much more pervasive disciplinary techniques by the state
creates conditions where we are more happy and willing to cede our rights, as well as accept more pervasive control over our lives
the punitive return
moralisation of health risk compels us not to just view people as bad, but also to view them as needing punishment
creation of conditions for society to have exaggerated perceptions of risk, and to authorise the government to intervene in highly punitive and coercive ways otherwise not considered to be legitimate
