perspectives

• durkheim

  • purpose of punishment is to reaffirm what society sees as right and wrong
  • allows society to express moral outrage at those who go against the collective consensus
• durkheim - retributive justice

  • used in small scale societies where solidarity is based on similarity to one another
  • response to offending is vengeful and repressive, punishment is severe and cruel
• durkheim - restitutive justice

  • large scale developed societies where solidarity is based on interdependence between people and institutions
  • crime threatens social order so punishment is used to restore balance
• marxist perspective

  • function of punishment is to maintain the existing order as part of the repressive state apparatus e.g in 18th century the poor were controlled by a "rule of terror" by aristocrats
• marxists - melossi and pararini

  • see imprisonment as reflecting capitalist society e.g :
  • prisons and factories have the same strict discipline with a loss of liberty and subordination
  • prisoners out power officers but can't overthrow, same as r/c and w/c
  • type of crime = length of sentence
  • hours worked = amount of wages