On Last Resorts

In a variety of social control settings, the use of extreme sanctions is held to be appropriate only as a last resort. This paper examines the nature, occasions, and accomplishment of such last-resort responses. Last resorts characteristically claim that there is no alternative but to invoke some dubiously valued sanction, a claim advanced against the backdrop of the "normal remedies" customarily used in a particular setting. Requested last resorts are justified by showing either that all such normal remedies are specifically inappropriate or that they have failed to contain the trouble. The conditions governing the latter procedure for justifying the turn to last-resort sanctions are analyzed in detail.