Consider the power mechanisms at work in the discourses of homelessness and victimology. The demand that we not enforce laws against people defined as victims is an attack on a foundational principle of our democracy, equal justice under the law. What is being proposed is, fundamentally, unequal justice, or perhaps a kind of revenge, something that sociologists detect in the sacralization of victims. “Holding the victim of an offense in higher regard can be a way of reversing the harmful effects of the offense, and even a way of punishing the offender, since one is rewarding the person the
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