NCJ Number
100559
Date Published
1985
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This paper interprets how the increasing use of fines, community service orders, and victim compensation reflect nondisciplinary emphases of social control in ''post-liberal' society.
Abstract
The use of fines, community service orders, and victim compensation in contemporary sentencing is examined in relation to Cohen's (1979) and Methiesen's (1980) ''dispersal of discipline' thesis, which argues that the state, by increasing the number and variety of sentences, extends its social control mechanisms into more aspects of citizens lives. The paper demonstrates how these three dispositions are less expressive of the expansion and extension of state control than a reflection of the technology, changes in the nature of work, and the growth of welfarism and corporatism that characterize ''post-liberal' society. The essay concludes with a relevant discussion of the differentiation of discipline, the moral evaluation of crimes, and political initiatives in crime control. The latter discussion indicates the complexity of understanding punishment in modern Western societies. 24 notes.