Monstrous Offenders and the Search for Solidarity through Modern Punishment
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Monstrous Offenders and the Search
for Solidarity Through Modem
Punishment
by
JOSEPH E. KENNEDY*
Whoever fights with monsters should take care that in the process
he does not become a monster.
-Friedrich Nietzsche'
Introduction
Think of the following three terms: drug dealer, child molester,
and violent crime. In the abstract, each term is usually taken to refer
to the most monstrous offense and offender possible. The term drug
dealer conjures up an image of an Uzi-toting, gold-chain wearing,
remorseless urban predator. The term child molester elicits images
of a strange man who cruises playgrounds in the hope of luring
unattended children into his van, where he commits kidnapping, rape,
murder, or all three. Violent crime triggers thoughts of a vicious
assault, if not a rape or robbery involving a weapon. In each case, the
* Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina School of Law. I owe thanks to
many people who provided valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article: Lou
Bilionis, John Conley, Maxine Eichner, Arnold Loewy, Robert Mosteller, Eric Muller,
William Nelson, Maria Savasta-Kennedy, Jonathan Simon, Chris Slobogin, Carol Steiker,
and Ron Wright. Robin Henderson and the faculty and staff of the UNC Law Library
provided important research assistance, and I owe a special thanks to my partner in
teaching, Michelle Robertson, for her support during this project. Portions of this article
were presented at panels of the 1998 Annual Meeting of Law and Society and at the 1999
Southeastern Regional Conference of the Association of American Law Schools.
1. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA (Thomas Common trans.,
Promethus Books 1993) (1883-85).
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Monstrous Offenders and the Search for Solidarity through Modern Punishment
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