Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd
Evidence
In fact, the terror of the public execution created centres of illegality: on execution days, work stopped, the taverns were full, the authorities were abused, insults or stones were thrown at the executioner, the guards and the soldiers; attempts were made to seize the condemned man, either to save him or to kill him more surely; fights broke out, and there was no better prey for thieves than the curious throng around the scaffold. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Public punishment was abolished because it inflamed crowds rather than teaching them. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 397; Celebrated criminal spectacles deliberately drowned out political violence — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 435; Public execution reactivates injured sovereign power rather than restoring justice. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 104 (+10 more)
Related
- Public executions failed to frighten the people and so reformers demanded their abolition (similarity 0.90)
- Public punishment was abolished because it inflamed crowds rather than teaching them. (similarity 0.87)
- Punishment’s primary audience is the non-criminal public, not the offender (similarity 0.85)
- Execution rituals forged solidarity between the people and petty offenders against power (similarity 0.85)
- Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect (similarity 0.85)
- Public execution reactivates injured sovereign power rather than restoring justice. (similarity 0.84)
- Rather than displaying sovereign power, executions staged a reversible duel between executioner and people (similarity 0.83)
- Public execution functions as a political ritual of power, not mere justice. (similarity 0.83)
- Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence (similarity 0.83)
- Execution rituals were explicitly military displays of armed justice. (similarity 0.81)
- Public executions let condemned criminals reversibly become heroes who mock authority (similarity 0.81)
- The spectacle’s crowd could invert terror into revolt against the punitive power (similarity 0.81)
- The crowd functioned simultaneously as audience and participant in royal punishment (similarity 0.79)
- Celebrated criminal spectacles deliberately drowned out political violence (similarity 0.79)
- The executioner personified the sovereign’s answering violence against the criminal. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Public executions failed to frighten the people and so reformers demanded their abolition
#corroborates(0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118 - Public executions taught the people that violence could be met with violence
#expands(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 125 - Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension
#expands(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 45 - Feigned punishment could deter crime without real suffering
#complicates(0.70) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 28