NCJ Number
186497
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: 2000 Pages: 25-45
Editor(s)
J. Mitchell Miller
Date Published
2000
Length
21 pages
Annotation
In challenging freedoms afforded by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, official campaigns to prohibit flag desecration have continued to surface on the political landscape.
Abstract
With this in mind, the authors attempt to advance the understanding of the State, its authority, and efforts to protect its symbols by examining 17 flag desecration cases in the post-Eichman period between 1990 and 1995. Key dynamics driving the criminalization process are clearly illustrated, namely, moral enterprises, moral panic, authoritarian aesthetics, and escalation. Altogether, these concepts shape the critical interpretation of the dialectic between authority and resistance and contribute to a growing intellectual interest in official imagery and social control. The authors note that flag desecration stands apart from other offenses insofar as it does not involve violence, theft, or the consumption and distribution of controlled substances and that flag desecration is also remarkable because it targets not only the State but also authoritarian aesthetics through its symbols. Because flag desecration occurs in public spaces, it shocks the consciousness of authorities and prompts moral panic. In turn, moral entrepreneurs campaign for greater social control of political symbols and public spaces. 78 references and 5 notes