Book Review: Meth wars: Police, media, power

• Author: Rashi K. Shukla
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717710995
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

medical practitioners in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the range in training and education,

and considers the effects this variability had on diagnostic patterns.

Chapters 4 and 5 examine the diagnoses offered in court, the changes over time, and noticeable

patterns in how the forensic psychiatric witness was examined. Chapter 6 examines the diagnoses of

homicidal mania in detail, particularly its grounding in the forensic-friendly concept of delusion and

also in a variant of epilepsy that resulted in a convulsion of ideas, not limbs!

The last chaptersteps back from the medical witnessand the increasingly assertivedefense attorney

to consider the judge’s role in the rapidly evolving criminal procedures. Conventional wisdom might

argue that as thedefense attorney rose to prominenceand with him greater attentionto the trustworthi-

ness of evidenceand a tightening of the standardof proof, the bench wouldexperience a corresponding

receding of its authority and discretion. This chapter usesthe trail narratives to probe this assumption.

The role of the remaining courtroom participant—the juror—is left to the conclusion. Among the

many treasures yielded up by the courtroom narratives is an important corrective to the notion that

Victorian jurie s were passive p articipants in the judicial process .

Psychiatry, and particularly forensic psychiatry, is the most culturally informed of medical

specialties. The concerns that guided criminal insanity trials from 1760 to 1913 resonated the

capacity to control one’s behavior and medical witnesses had found a way to account for the

inexplicable and to present their opinion as rooted in experience-based knowledge.

Covering hundreds of trials, Eigen has done an extensive research about a fascinating and

important topic in historical criminology. For sociologist of madness and crime, legal scholars, and

any reader interested in contemporary criminal procedure, the book is a lovely read, rich in narrative

examples, and a sophisticated exploration of the history of the insanity defense.

Linnemann, T. (2016).

Meth wars: Police, media, power. New York: New York University Press. 271 pp. $30.00, ISBN 9781479878697

(paperback).

Reviewed by: Rashi K. Shukla,UniversityofCentralOklahoma,Edmond,OK,USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567717710995

Meth Wars is a thought-provoking, critical commentary on the power of cultural phenomenon, in

this case methamphetamine, as a scapegoat for modern so cial, political, and racial inequalities

behind the seemingly never-ending war on drugs. Early on, readers are presented with the main

theme, “the methamphetamine imaginary” (p. 5), which is used throughout to illustrate the power of

beliefs and belief systems on power and social control. This work examines how such perceptions

and thoughts about methamphetamine are embedded in and influence broader cultural, political, and

social worlds and the very real and often invisible consequences they produce. The methampheta-

mine imaginary masks the inequalities of late capitalism.

Linnemann presents a case focused almost solely on the methamphetamine imaginary through a

piece of research that is about, and yet at the same time is not at all about, methamphetamine. The

book begins with the linking of philosophical concepts and arguments with real-life and pop culture

examples to illuminate the methamphetamine imaginary as the force that it is. It ends with a detailed

and critical discussion of forces of power and control that have expanded to exert their influences

beyond the borders of the United States via the mechanisms of drug wars.

Meth Wars is divided into six chapters, not including the Introduction and Epilogue. Each focuses

on a key source of information and presents a central story line as it relates to the methamphetamine

imaginary. Chapters are based on primary data and experiences of the author as well as social

Book Reviews 223