Michel Foucault takes the reader on a serendipitous journey in tracing the history of madness from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Utilizing original documents, the author recreates the mood, the place, and the proper perspective in the history of madness. Madness or folly is viewed as part of the human condition and to be examined and illuminated through one of its many facets. At the end of the Middle Ages madness was seen either as a tragic or comic phenomenon. The Renaissance, with Erasmus' Praise of Folly , demonstrated how imagination and its derivatives were to thinkers of that day. The French Revolution introduced the so-called medical approach. Madness is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has common roots not only in medicine but in poetry and tragedy. Shakespeare brilliantly describes psychological phenomena with even greater clarity than Tuke or Wills. The author weaves a fascinating history showing the changing pattern of

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.

Planet of slums

The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control.Malcolm W. Klein

The author of this volume is well known for his view that mental illness is a "myth," arrived at through biased attitudes and objectionable methods used by society toward some of its nonconforming members. Such a viewpoint has elicited much controversy. In this new book, Dr. Szasz pushes his argument further, this time along historical lines. In the first part, he defends the thesis that today's mentally ill are identified and treated— or mistreated—in a way similar to the alleged witches in the Renaissance and to the Jews at particular times and places in their history. The second part covers a variety of topics. Benjamin Rush, far from being considered as "The Father of American Psychiatry," is severely criticized for his moralistic attitude toward the mentally ill. Homosexuality is viewed as a stigma replacing the heresy of the past centuries, rather than as an illness. In one chapter the concept

The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

War on drugs.

Interest in youth gang activities in Canada has engendered an increasing engagement by government institutions and police departments of American ‘gang experts’ who supposedly have a long pedigree in dealing with this type of problem. I argue that: (a) considering the lingering contentions over the nature, structure, and organization of gangs generally, Canada does not stand to benefit significantly from the American ‘gang’ experience; and (b) the focus of contemporary American gang literature on minority youths helps to sustain the stereotype and control of racialized youths as the ‘poster boys’ of urban youth violence. This is in line with research showing that ‘expert’ knowledge has historically been used to support the ‘othering’ and control of marginalized populations. Canadian youth gang policy does not need to borrow from this model, as it will unnecessarily exacerbate racial tensions in the country.

Doing gang research in Canada: navigating a different kaleidoscope

This paper documents the ways different sections of Toronto’s black community construct the problem of gun violence commonly associated with young black males in the city. Recognising that social policies are often products of contestations among different claims makers trying to dominate the definition of particular social problems and the policy initiatives for their control, the paper documents the marginalized epistemologies of members of the city’s black community as “knowers located in actual lived situations”. Following Smith’s (Writing the social: Critique, theory, and investigations, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1999, p. 5) “sociology for people” method of inquiry, it examines the prism of meaning within which black community leaders interpret the phenomenon of gun violence taking place among mostly black youths in Toronto.

Dudes, Let’s Talk About Us: the Black “Community” Construction of Gun Violence in Toronto

This article discusses the ways in which the Toronto Police Service has constructed the problem of gun violence in the city. This violence is commonly associated in the media with young black males. The data for the study derived from semi-structured interviews with police officers and secondary sources, including police public statements, press releases, and official documents. The most prominent police frame attributed the problem of gun violence in Toronto to the proliferation of gangs, illegal gun smuggling and illicit drug trafficking. Other frames, to a lesser degree, blamed structural factors such as poverty and unemployment, disintegrated neighbourhoods and families, and a faulty legal system.

Gun Violence in Toronto: Perspectives from the Police

A number of public security challenges confronting Nigeria since the late 1980s have been traced to the activities of violent student fraternities in tertiary institutions, especially the universities. Using individual and focus group interviews of 30 participants, this study discusses the structure and violent activities of these fraternities in a university anonymized as the University of the South. Data from the study demonstrate that brutal hazing practices and inter-group conflicts associated with these groups are the principal causes of violence at the institution. The study also suggests that a class kinship between the country’s indigenous bourgeoisie and members of these fraternities undermines government’s interest in confronting the problem.

Violent Fraternities and Public Security Challenges in Nigerian Universities: a Study of the “University of the South”

\nPetroleum exploration activities started in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in the early twentieth century as part of the expansive process of primitive accumulation instituted by the British colonial administration to advance its economic interest. Since petroleum resources were discovered in commercial quantities in the region in 1956, transnational extraction corporations (including Shell, Chevron, and ExxonMobil) in collaboration with the emergent domestic compradors have plundered the resource wealth. While decades of crude oil and gas production in the region have enormously enriched the captors of the petroleum industry, the host communities have suffered debilitating economic and health consequences.\nThis article discusses the public health challenges resulting from this predatory political economy, along the lines of a bourgeoning body of literature that conceptualizes preventable market-driven harms as criminal.

Ifeanyi Ezeonu

Papers

Doing gang research in Canada: navigating a different kaleidoscope

Dudes, Let’s Talk About Us: the Black “Community” Construction of Gun Violence in Toronto

Gun Violence in Toronto: Perspectives from the Police

Violent Fraternities and Public Security Challenges in Nigerian Universities: a Study of the “University of the South”

Capital Accumulation, Environmental Pollution, and Public Health Challenges in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry: Lessons on Market Criminology