Limits to Pain

By Nils Christie, 1981

Table of contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1. ON PAIN
• Chapter 2. THE SHIELD OF WORDS
• Chapter 3. TREATMENT FOR CRIME
  • 3.1. From alcohol to dangerousness
  • 3.2. The great explorers
  • 3.3. The downfall of an empire
• Chapter 4. DETERRENCE
  • 4.1. The twin ideologies
  • 4.2. Scientification of the obvious
  • 4.3. Level of pain delivery
  • 4.4. Crime control as the goal for crime control?
  • 4.5. An opener to neo-classicism
• Chapter 5. NEO-CLASSICISM
  • 5.1. Birth and re-birth
  • 5.2. With Beccaria to USA
  • 5.3. Beccaria in Scandinavia
• Chapter 6. THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM
  • 6.1. Crime is not important enough
  • 6.2. Blaming individuals, not systems
  • 6.3. Pain is not kind enough
  • 6.4. Neutralization of guilt
  • 6.5. The strong state
• Chapter 7. THE COMPUTER
• Chapter 8. NEO-POSITIVISM
  • 8.1. The impotent society
  • 8.2. Advocates for control
  • 8.3. Our comrades
  • 8.4. My comrade, the functionary
• Chapter 9. PAIN FOREVER?
  • 9.1. A one-dimensional pendulum
  • 9.2. Experts needed
  • 9.3. Subterranean patterns
  • 9.4. Counter cultures
• Chapter 10. SOME CONDITIONS FOR A LOW LEVEL OF PAIN INFLICTION
  • 10.1. Knowledge
  • 10.2. Power
  • 10.3. Vulnerability
  • 10.4. Mutual dependence
  • 10.5. Belief system
• Chapter 11. PARTICIPATORY JUSTICE
  • 11.1. Civilization of conflicts
  • 11.2. Compensatory justice
  • 11.3. Punishment as mourning
  • 11.4. The informal economy
  • 11.5. Justice to the weak
  • 11.6. Limits to limits?
• Chapter 12. IN CONTRAST TO PAIN
• Bibliography