Book Review: Control and Protect: Collaboration, Carceral Protection, and Domestic Sex Trafficking in the United States

• Author: Patricia A. Dooley
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567718760688
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019

Harrington posits that the gradual diminished use of capital punishment and torture during

interrogations was not a result of an increase in empathy and call for mercy and rehabilitation that

resulted from enlightened thought, rather it was about the fortification of the power of the state.

they did finally feel secure enough in their legal authority to rely more on public displays of clemency

than on carefully choreographed rituals of brutality. Thanks in large part to the work of Meister Frantz

and his fellow enforcers, the authority of the state and its judges was now an established reality, as

opposed to the not always convincing assertion it had been a century before. (p. 230)

This meant that the dark underbelly of the rule of law of 16th-century Europe was that it was

written in the blood of common criminals meant to reify the power of the state. As Harrington

examines the role that Schmidt plays in this process, we also see signs of the future of penology and

the differentiations between types of crimes and types of offenders in the criminal justice system.

Schmidt recognizes moral differences between premeditated crimes and crimes of passion, as well

as crimes committed for survival. He also recognizes the limits of deterrence, as most of his

executions involve repeat offenders punished previously with banishment or corporal punishment.

He showed tremendous restraint in avoiding the witch hunts so common during the time. Similarly,

he also recognized the detrimental effects of associating with criminals, addiction, and the lack of an

honorable profession. Yet, true to his profession as an executioner, mercy is often expressed through

the speed and method of execution (i.e., death by sword rather than death by the wheel) rather than

the commutation of sentences, which was for the most part beyond the purview of his profession.

Almost 500 years after the life of Meister Frantz Schmidt, many societies are grappling with the

complicated legacies of statues and monuments. Increasingly, we are challenged to recognize the

human beings, enshrined in stone as heroes and patriots, whose lives and work also represent

legacies of slavery, residential schools, sexism, and other crimes and misdemeanors. Harrington

has given us a historical counterpoint, a man who without this book is just part of a composite

historical caricature—the evil executioner. Upon reading, one discovers the internal conflict

between an executioner and a healer, a man who is both compassionate and dispassionate and a

man who used a shameful occupation to restore his family honor. With both statue and caricature,

the complexity of the individual is lost and as Harrington has shown us—worth finding!

I would recommend The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbu-

lent Sixteenth Century for scholars and students in law, history, and penology.

Musto, J. (2016).

Control and Protect: Collaboration, Carceral Protection, and Domestic Sex Trafficking in the United States.

Oakland: University of California Press. 256 p. $34.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-520-28196-7.

Reviewed by:Patricia A. Dooley, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta,

GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567718760688

Musto reflects on the impacts of policies, legal definitions, and practices have on domestic sex

trafficking in Control and Protect: Collaboration, Carceral Protection, and Domestic Sex Traffick-

ing in the United States. This ethnographic study focuses on the harms from current practices and the

impact of the victim–offender label. By reflecting upon the interviews with criminal justice actors,

rehabilitation works, and victims, Musto introduces common themes found within the treatment and

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