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Barry Feld, Kids, Cops and Confessions: Inside the Interrogation Room

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorElizabeth Brown
DOI10.1177/1462474513520484
Published date01 December 2014
Date01 December 2014
Subject MatterBook reviews
untitled Book reviews
611
justice system the category of ‘dangerousness’. The new judges of the penal execu-
tion and the police were called upon to play the role of experts of dangerousness,
operating an anthropological judgement that brought them closer to the role of
criminologists and psychiatrists. Nevertheless, Italy had not shifted towards a truly
totalitarian model of criminal justice. The liberal legal categories, in particular the
principles of legality and imputability, were never completely abandoned in favour
of a policy of social defence that pointed directly to a judicial codif‌ication of
inequality. Although it may seem paradoxical, one main ingredient of the fascist
criminal reform consisted precisely in the reassertion of classical legal categories
and of the symbolic function of repression, despite the attempt to allow for more
f‌lexible social control policies and the explicit racist tone of the criminological
culture of the time. In this respect, Italy dif‌fered sharply from other regimes of
the time which overtly rejected the principles of legality and of imputability, such as
the USSR in 1926 and, some years later, Nazi Germany.
Crime and the Fascist State is a relevant contribution to the history of crimino-
logical thought and of criminal law, but it also of‌fers several theoretical insights to
all those who are interested in the relationship between risk and criminal justice in
modern societies.
References
Rocco A (Alfredo) (1927) La trasformazione dello Stato: dallo Stato liberale allo Stato
fascista. Rome: La voce.
Rocco A (Arturo) (1910) Il problema e il metodo nella scienza del diritto penale. Milan:
F: Vallardi.
Giuseppe Campesi
University of Bari, Italy
Barry Feld, Kids, Cops and Confessions: Inside the Interrogation Room, New York University Press:
New York, 2013; 341 pp. (includes index): $35.00 (cloth), 9780814727775
Barry Feld’s latest book, Kids, Cops and Confessions: Inside the Interrogation Room
provides a comprehensive and exceedingly detailed analysis of...

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