Enlisting and Resisting: The Family and the Criminal Justice System as Partners and Rivals

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Families and the criminal justice system, once nominally separate sites of authority, seem increasingly intertwined.  The criminal justice system regulates families in ways that seem new, and enlists families in novel partnerships against crime, disorder, and victimization.  But are these developments really new?  And are these true partnerships, or is the family being enlisted in its own destruction or marginalization?  This panel will explore the changing relationship between families and the criminal justice system, new opportunities for the two to work hand-in-hand, and new threats posed by the increasingly intimate interaction between these two ancient modes of authority and social regulation.