punishment

• justifications for punishment

  1. deterrence - used as both individual or general deterrence e.g deterrence policies such as thatchers 'short, sharp shock' regime
  2. rehabilitation - reform/change offender
• Durkheim - functions of punishment

  • upholds social solidarity
  • reinforces shared values
  • punishment is expressive - expresses society's emotions of moral outrage
• Durkheim - 2 types of justice

  1. retributive justice
  2. restitutive justice
• retributive justice

  • used in traditional societies
  • punishment more severe and brutal
  • due to similar solidarity between individuals, leads to more stronger collective conscience
  • e.g execution, death penalty
  • motivation is expressive
  • an eye for an eye
• restitutive justice

  • modern society
  • solidarity based on interdependence between individuals
  • crime damages interdependence, so it is necessary to repair damage
  • punishment aims to restore society's equilibrium
  • more instrumental motivation
  • e.g fines, community sentences, rehab
• marxists

  • look at how punishment is related to the nature of class society and how it serves ruling class interest
  • look at the forms and functions of punishment
• marxists - function of punishment

  • to maintain existing social order
  • Althusser - part of the RSA - defending ruling-class property against lower classes
  • e.g thompson - hanging used in 18th century for theft
  • role of punishment is to benefit capitalism through imprisonment of working classes
• marxists - form of punishment

  • reflects the economic base of society
  • rusche and kirchheimer (1939) argue, each type of economy has its own corresponding penal system.
  • e.g fines are impossible without a money economy.
  • They argue that under capitalism, imprisonment becomes the dominant form of punishment.
• changing role of prisons

  • pre-industrial Europe - warnings, banishment, execution, minimal imprisonment
  • 18th century - prison more widely used following the enlightenment, deemed that offenders could be reformed
  • today - imprisonment most severe punishment, move towards populist punitiveness, over population of prisons
• garland - populist punitiveness

  • where politicians have sought electoral popularity by calling for tougher sentences.
  • e.g New Labour governments after 1997 took the view that prison should be used not just for serious offenders, but also as a deterrent for persistent petty offenders.
  • prisons now being used by politicians to prove electorate that they are tough on crime
• prison population

  • 1993 and 2021, the number of prisoners in England and Wales almost doubled to reach a total of 80,000.
  • leads to over crowding, poor sanitisation, lack of resources, decrease in staff to prisoner ratio
• prison statistics

  • England and Wales, 130 out of every 100,000 people are in prison.
  • france - 93
  • germany - 69
  • 95% of prison population are male
• mass incarceration

  • refers to the reality that the United States criminalizes and incarcerates more of its own people than any other country in the history of the world
  • inflicts harm primarily on the most vulnerable: poor people of color.
• garland

  • suggest late modernity society has changed the role of the state in punishment
  • three different responses to role of the state: adaptive response, expressive strategy, sovereign
• adaptive response

  • identifying risk groups and aiming to intervene at early stages (similar to social and community crime prevention)
  • does raise questions on how risk is identified - can lead to labelling, stereotypes, discrimination
  • links to actuarial justice
• expressive strategy

  • changing perception of crime as less threatening
  • e.g changing perception in media - less focus on street crime in news
  • makes individuals feel safer in society
• sovereign state strategy

  • using mass incarceration
  • USA - expansion of the prison service in 90s. Lead to growth in US prison population and privatisation of prison system
• transcarceration


  idea that individuals become locked into a cycle of control

  shifting between different carceral agencies

  e.g child goes from care home -> young offenders institution -> prison
• gordon - prison

  • marxist
  • prison benefits capitalism in three ways
  • 1 - imprisonment of lower classes prevents revolution against capitalism
  • 2 - imprisonment of underclass eliminates the sight of them so we cannot see them
  • 3 - helps to ignore the failings of the ruling class, their power and greed
• incapacitation


  the act of rendering an individual incapable of committing future crimes. 
• thatcher - short, sharp shock regime 1980s

  • the ‘short, sharp shock’ regime was used in detention centres.
  • This involved using a deliberately tough approach for a few weeks or months.
  • Approaches used included activities such as military-style drills and marching.
  • However, it did not appear to reduce reoffending.
  • did act as a deterrence for young people