Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Legal Studies
Reader 1
Mark Golub
Reader 2
Susan Castagnetto
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2019 Jeri R Mallory
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to uncover a new level of thinking regarding the discourse and debate around the standard of reasonable doubt and how it is used in our court rooms. The current argument surrounding the reasonable doubt standard has become circular and reached an impasse. By introducing the lens of social control and using the writings of notable French philosopher Michel Foucault, this paper looks at the origins and development of the reasonable doubt standard and links it with the increasing methods of social control present in punishment as well as evaluating the cultural narrative around its origin and assessing why this standard was permitted to continue to be a cornerstone of the Anglo-American judicial system.
Recommended Citation
Mallory, Jeri, "Comparisons of the Soul: A Foucauldian Analysis of Reasonable Doubt" (2019). Scripps Senior Theses. 1409.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1409
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Courts Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Legal History Commons
