ABSTRACT
In contrast, this chapter grounds claims about the “law” and “punitiveness” in implementation data, using official documents and admissions data of prison and sexual psychopath civil commitment institutions in California from 1930-80, snapshots of enforcement and disposition practices, and archival material from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction regarding California and New York. The law in practice had punitive and repressive effects, but it was also constitutive for LGBT communities and psychiatric experts. Further, the generic view of law enforcement actors as participants in crackdowns misses the mediation that took place within precincts and courtrooms, as well as the role the “deviants” themselves played in constructing their experience of sexual psychopath laws.
