NCJ Number
124780
Journal
British Journal of Sociology Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1990) Pages: 1-15
Date Published
1990
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article argues that theoretical work on the sociology of punishment based on Foucault's "sociology of control" is unduly strategic and leads to one-sided analysis. Rather, punishment is a means of expressing social value and emotion as well as a process for asserting control.
Abstract
Foucault's insistence that punishment should be viewed in terms of power and his inability to explain a dysfunctional, counterproductive institution (prison) demonstrate the weaknesses and limitations of this style of sociological interpretation. According to Durkheim, on the other hand, although punishment has rationality and control superimposed on it, its essence in an irrational and emotional expression of collective conscience. The author takes exception to this view, which assumes that all effects of punishment are positive. The third perspective, which this article adopts, presumes that the instrumentalities of penal power take place within a social and cultural context. Punishment has deep symbolic and emotional meanings precisely because it lies directly at the root of social order and touches on issues of authority, social membership, and the legitimacy of violence. 24 notes. (Author abstract modified)