Penality in the Underground

Rezensionen / Stimmen

Dudai is to be applauded for developing a persuasively structured analytical framework that enables us to understand how the demonization and punishment of informers has served a variety of shifting functions in the Northern Ireland context. This framework, which also contributes to the development of a wider understanding of penality, can also be the basis for researching 'governing through informers' in other contexts of prolonged political violence. * Eugene McLaughlin, Theoretical Criminology * Dudai is to be applauded for developing a persuasively structured analytical framework that enables us to understand how the demonization and punishment of informers has served a variety of shifting functions in the Northern Ireland context. This framework, which also contributes to the development of a wider understanding of penality, can also be the basis for researching 'governing through informers' in other contexts of prolonged political violence. * Eugene McLaughlin, University of London, Theoretical Criminology * The author is to be highly commended for producing a well-researched and engagingly written work on an at times opaque subject. The book illuminates and provides original research and analysis of a perennial though often hidden aspect of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It deserves to be read by a wide audience, including those with an interest in the inner workings of non-state armed groups, as well as in broader issues concerning conflict and transition in Northern Ireland. * SHANE DARCY, Journal of Law and Society * Dudai's empirical work in this virtually unstudied area is breathtaking, and his theoretical exploration of the practice of informant killing upends our understanding of punishment and society. * Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley * There are few topics as complex and sensitive as the role of informers in political conflict and how armed groups respond to their activities. Using the IRA as a case-study, Ron Dudai has produced an outstanding study which does justice to that complexity and more. Drawing variously from criminology, sociology, law, anthropology, history and other fields - this is what proper interdisciplinary scholarship looks like. It is an intellectual tour de force and a joy to read. We would all like to write a book as good as this once in our lives. It will come to be seen as a classic. * Kieran McEvoy, Queen's University Belfast * This original theoretical and empirical account focuses on the IRA's response to informers. Dudai draws to good effect on a wide historical, political and cultural context, within which he situates his rigorous analysis, but his most important intellectual contribution is to the sociology of punishment. Dudai writes beautifully with clear and elegant prose and his book deserves to be read by audiences in a wide range of fields. * Carolyn Hoyle, Oxford University *