TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - Remarks on Sacrifice and Punishment
JO  - Law, culture and the humanities
A1  - Ptacek, Melissa
SP  - 32
EP  - 47
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
N2  - In this commentary, I explore affirmative responses to the question of whether the notion of sacrifice illuminates the nature of punitive acts such as executions and lynchings. In the end, however, I maintain that the notion of sacrifice is incompatible with such efforts and may serve more to obscure than to illuminate. Not only are key aspects of sacrifice overlooked in such analyses, but attention is diverted from the specific punitive violence of law. Finally, I propose that, when separated from its sacrificial framework, René Girard’s figure of the scapegoat may be helpful to understanding this punitive violence.<p /> 
LA  - 
SN  - 1743-8721
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1743872109355562
ID  - ref1
ER  -