NCJ Number
130420
Date Published
1991
Length
51 pages
Annotation
Punishment is examined from major sociological perspectives, with emphasis on the resources that social theory offers for the understanding of punishment.
Abstract
The discussion notes that sociological perspectives view punishment as a complex social institution that is shaped by a variety of social and historical forces and that has a range of effects that reach well beyond the population of offenders. The Durkheimian perspective interprets punishment as a morality-affirming, solidarity-producing mechanism based on collective sentiments. Marxist studies depict punishment as an economically conditioned governmental apparatus that plays an ideological and political role in ruling class domination. Foucault's work focuses on the specific techniques of power and knowledge that operate in the penal area and links them to broader aspects of discipline and regulation. The work of Norbert Elias points to the importance of cultural sensibilities and the "civilizing process" in the shaping of modern penal measures. Elements of these interpretive traditions can be brought together to produce a multidimensional account of punishment's social forms, functions, and significance that can, in turn, help promote more realistic and appropriate objectives for penal policy and a fuller framework for evaluating it. 79 references (Author abstract modified)