Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Brendon Murphy (2016), Deceptive apparatus: Foucauldian perspectives on law, authorised crime and the rationalities of undercover investigation, Griffith Law Review, 25(2), 223–244.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2016.1194956

ABSTRACT
Investigation of crime is central to the function and purpose of law enforcement. Contemporary investigation depends on a sophisticated arsenal of theories and techniques interacting with law and its institutions in a variety of ways, including authorised unlawful activity. Drawing on Foucault, this article re-imagines the investigation and associated legal architectures as apparatus; a rationality and strategy of governance shaped by intersecting knowledge formations. The paper considers the key characteristics of investigation and its relationship with law, concluding that investigations practices are a form of apparatus, and that aspects of these practices are grounded in a theological dynamic based on surveillance.

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