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Hidden Victims : The Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused / Susan F. Sharp.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Critical Issues in Crime and SocietyPublisher: New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press, [2005]Copyright date: ©2005Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780813535838
  • 9780813537870
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 362.82/9 22
LOC classification:
  • HV8699.U5 S45 2005eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction: The Death Penalty, Victims’ Families, and Families of Prisoners -- Chapter 2. Dealing with the Horror: “We’re Sentenced, Too” -- Chapter 3. Trying to Cope -- Chapter 4. The Grief Process -- Chapter 5. Facing the End -- Chapter 6. Aftermath -- Chapter 7. “But He’s Innocent” -- Chapter 8. Double Losers -- Chapter 9. Family after the Fact -- Chapter 10. The Death Penalty and Families, Revisited -- Chapter 11. Conclusion -- Appendix A. Death Row Visitation Policie s -- Appendix B. Interview Schedule for Initial Interviews -- Appendix C. Demographics of Interview Subjects -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author
Summary: "Sharp’s book reemphasizes the tremendous costs of maintaining the death penalty—costs to real people and real families that ripple throughout generations to come."—Saundra D. Westervelt, author of Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense "Everyone concerned with the effects of capital punishment must have this book."—Margaret Vandiver, professor, department of criminology and criminal justice, University of Memphis Murderers, particularly those sentenced to death, are considered by most to be unusually heinous, often sub-human, and entirely different from the rest of us. In Hidden Victims, sociologist Susan F. Sharp challenges this culturally ingrained perspective by reminding us that those individuals facing a death sentence, in addition to being murderers, are brothers or sisters, mothers or fathers, daughters or sons, relatives or friends. Through a series of vivid and in-depth interviews with families of the accused, she demonstrates how the exceptionally severe way in which we view those on death row trickles down to those with whom they are closely connected. Sharp shows how family members and friends—in effect, the indirect victims of the initial crime—experience a profoundly complicated and socially isolating grief process. Departing from a humanist perspective from which most accounts of victims are told, Sharp makes her case from a sociological standpoint that draws out the parallel experiences and coping mechanisms of these individuals. Chapters focus on responses to sentencing, the particular structure of grieving faced by this population, execution, aftermath, wrongful conviction, family formation after conviction, and the complex situation of individuals related to both the killer and the victim. Powerful, poignant, and intelligently written, Hidden Victims challenges all of us—regardless of which side of the death penalty you are on—to understand the economic, social, and psychological repercussions that shape the lives of the often forgotten families of death row inmates.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780813537870

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Introduction: The Death Penalty, Victims’ Families, and Families of Prisoners -- Chapter 2. Dealing with the Horror: “We’re Sentenced, Too” -- Chapter 3. Trying to Cope -- Chapter 4. The Grief Process -- Chapter 5. Facing the End -- Chapter 6. Aftermath -- Chapter 7. “But He’s Innocent” -- Chapter 8. Double Losers -- Chapter 9. Family after the Fact -- Chapter 10. The Death Penalty and Families, Revisited -- Chapter 11. Conclusion -- Appendix A. Death Row Visitation Policie s -- Appendix B. Interview Schedule for Initial Interviews -- Appendix C. Demographics of Interview Subjects -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

"Sharp’s book reemphasizes the tremendous costs of maintaining the death penalty—costs to real people and real families that ripple throughout generations to come."—Saundra D. Westervelt, author of Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense "Everyone concerned with the effects of capital punishment must have this book."—Margaret Vandiver, professor, department of criminology and criminal justice, University of Memphis Murderers, particularly those sentenced to death, are considered by most to be unusually heinous, often sub-human, and entirely different from the rest of us. In Hidden Victims, sociologist Susan F. Sharp challenges this culturally ingrained perspective by reminding us that those individuals facing a death sentence, in addition to being murderers, are brothers or sisters, mothers or fathers, daughters or sons, relatives or friends. Through a series of vivid and in-depth interviews with families of the accused, she demonstrates how the exceptionally severe way in which we view those on death row trickles down to those with whom they are closely connected. Sharp shows how family members and friends—in effect, the indirect victims of the initial crime—experience a profoundly complicated and socially isolating grief process. Departing from a humanist perspective from which most accounts of victims are told, Sharp makes her case from a sociological standpoint that draws out the parallel experiences and coping mechanisms of these individuals. Chapters focus on responses to sentencing, the particular structure of grieving faced by this population, execution, aftermath, wrongful conviction, family formation after conviction, and the complex situation of individuals related to both the killer and the victim. Powerful, poignant, and intelligently written, Hidden Victims challenges all of us—regardless of which side of the death penalty you are on—to understand the economic, social, and psychological repercussions that shape the lives of the often forgotten families of death row inmates.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 27. Jan 2023)