![handle is hein.journals/ctlcrm18 and id is 1 raw text is: Crit Crim (2010) 18:1-20
DOI 10.1007/s10612-009-9089-5
Between the 'Home' and 'Institutional' Worlds: Tensions
and Contradictions in the Practice of House Arrest
William G. Staples - Stephanie K. Decker
Published online: 26 November 2009
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract In this paper we argue that the theoretical work of Goffman (1961) on total
institutions, Foucault's (1977) insights into the workings of disciplinary power, and an
account of contemporary forms of punishment and social control in postmodern society
(Staples 2000) help us better understand the experiences of those individuals sentenced to
house arrest. Based on face-to-face interviews with twenty-three people being electroni-
cally monitored in a Midwestern metropolitan area, our analysis identifies three themes
that illustrate the ways in which electronic monitoring is experienced as a complex
amalgam of what Goffman (1961, p. 13) saw as the distinct home world and the
institutional world. These themes include (1) Home is Where the Machine Is, (2)
Producing Docile Bodies, and (3) Threat of Sanctions. We reassert our claim (Staples
1994, 2000) that contemporary forms of social control such as electronic monitoring reflect
an ongoing struggle to deal with problems and issues set in motion with the birth of
modernity.
[Total institutions] create and sustain a particular kind of tension between the home
world and the institutional world and uses this persistent tension as strategic leverage
in the management of men (sic).
Erving Goffman, Asylums (1961, p. 13).
While on the one hand disciplinary establishments increase, their mechanisms have a
certain tendency to become de-institutionalized, to emerge from the closed for-
tresses... the massive, compact disciplines are broken down into flexible methods of
control.
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1977, p. 211).
So it's like you're at your house but you can't leave your little square box unless
you're going to do whatever is on your list at a certain time. And it's just, you're
W. G. Staples (®) - S. K. Decker
Department of Sociology, University of Kansas, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd. Room 716, Lawrence,
KS 66045-7556, USA
e-mail: staples@ku.edu
Springer](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ctlcrm18&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most