“Cancel Culture” and Criminal Justice

Authors

Steven Arrigg Koh

Abstract

This Article explores the relationship between two normative systems in modern society: “cancel culture” and criminal justice. It argues that cancel culture—a ubiquitous phenomenon in contemporary life—may rectify deficiencies of over- and under-enforcement in the U.S. criminal justice system. However, the downsides of cancel culture’s structure—imprecise factfinding, potentially disproportionate sanctions leading to collateral consequences, a “thin” conception of the wrongdoer as beyond rehabilitation, and a broader cultural anxiety that “chills” certain human conduct—reflect problematic U.S. punitive impulses that characterize our era of mass incarceration. This Article thus argues that social media reform proposals obscure a deeper necessity: transcendence of blame through criminal justice reform and, ultimately, collective emphasis on reintegration after human wrongdoing.

Recommended Citation

Steven Arrigg Koh, “Cancel Culture” and Criminal Justice, 74 Hastings L.J. 79 (2023).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol74/iss1/4