Remarks on Sacrifice and Punishment

Abstract

In this commentary, I explore affirmative responses to the question of whether the notion of sacrifice illuminates the nature of punitive acts such as executions and lynchings. In the end, however, I maintain that the notion of sacrifice is incompatible with such efforts and may serve more to obscure than to illuminate. Not only are key aspects of sacrifice overlooked in such analyses, but attention is diverted from the specific punitive violence of law. Finally, I propose that, when separated from its sacrificial framework, René Girard’s figure of the scapegoat may be helpful to understanding this punitive violence.