5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

I: The judicialization of social problems and the governance of security has changed substantially in the 21^st Century, both by harshening criminal punishment and by widening the scope of penalization processes. Traditionally, democratic societies tend to manage problematic conflicts and “dangerous” populations through legal institutions anchored in the following liberal triad: legal rules, balanced rights, and sanctions mostly associated to criminal law. Beyond criminalization,many scholars are pointing to a variety of forms of judicialization, relying on criminal or administrative, civil, regulatory and even hybrid legal regimes.

This panel is organized by RCSL WG “Judicialization of Social Problems”. It puts into conversation papers about different contexts, hoping to illuminate how law and legal regimes are mobilized to govern security and social problems.

II: Because of the risk of violence and incapacity for decision-making and self-care, psychiatric diagnoses allow to hospitalize and treat people against their will, subsequently isolating them from the ‘normal’ rest. Considered to have therapeutic virtues, psychiatric coercion is on the rise in most countries of the global North. Seen like dangerous monsters, subjects of psychiatric coercion have steadily been granted legal rights to improve their legal position. These legal developments, however, have been oriented towards putting boundaries on psychiatric coercion, not eradicating it.

In this panel, we aim to question how, reframed as “compassionate,” the therapeutic dimension of psychiatric coercion justifies ignoring the safeguards supposed to protect rights, but also denying oppression at the interface of race, socioeconomic status or gender.