Punishment

Purpose of punishment Newburn

Point:

Newburn outlines several key purposes of punishment in society, including rehabilitation, deterrence, restorative justice, incapacitation, boundary maintenance, and retribution.

Evidence:

For example, rehabilitation aims to reform offenders, while deterrence discourages others from committing crime. Restorative justice focuses on offenders making amends, and incapacitation removes dangerous individuals from society. Boundary maintenance reinforces social norms, and retribution satisfies society’s need for justice.

Explain:

These functions show that punishment is not just about reducing crime but also about maintaining social order and reinforcing shared values.

Link:

Newburn’s view highlights how punishment serves both practical and symbolic roles in society.

Evaluate:

However, critics argue that some methods, like imprisonment, often fail to rehabilitate or deter, and may be driven more by politics than effectiveness.

Functionalism

Society can only exist if there is a shared system of values that tie a society together morally. Laws are a representation of this collective conscious. Durkheim suggest that retribution gives people an outlet for anger and reaffirms collective consciousness.

Marxism

Laws are a reflection of ruling class ideology and punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus (Althusser) which keeps people in line and in their place.

weberianism

Only the state has the power to punish offenders, not the church or landowners as in the past. Legal Rational Authority meaning punishment is based on impersonal rules and regulations set out by a vast bureaucracy and set of checks and balances.

Rusche and Kirchheimer

Point:

Rusche and Kirchheimer argue that punishment serves as a tool of social control and reflects the economic needs of the ruling class.

Evidence:

They show how forms of punishment have changed over time—from brutal physical punishments to transportation and now to imprisonment with cheap prison labour—depending on what best suits the economy.

Explain:

When labour was plentiful, punishments were harsher (e.g. executions), but as the need for labour grew, punishments became less severe, focusing more on exploitation than elimination.

Link:

This Marxist view sees punishment not as neutral justice, but as a way for the powerful to control the working class and maintain their dominance.

Evaluate:

Critics argue this view is too economically deterministic and ignores other functions of punishment like deterrence or moral education, but it effectively shows the link between capitalism and penal policy.

Garland

Point:

Garland argues that modern society has shifted from a focus on rehabilitation to a more punitive approach to crime control, driven by fear and political interests.

Evidence:

In the 1950s, the state followed a model of penal welfarism, aiming to rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into society. However, Garland claims we now live in a ‘culture of control’, where the focus is on actuarialism (managing risk), mass incarceration, and transcarceration (moving people between various forms of control like care homes, prisons, and mental institutions).

Explain:

This shift reflects a society that is more focused on containing and managing deviance rather than understanding or solving its root causes. Crime control has also become politicised, with politicians using tough-on-crime rhetoric to gain public support and win elections.

Link:

Garland’s theory shows how fear of crime and political agendas have reshaped the criminal justice system into a more controlling and less rehabilitative institution.

Evaluate:

While Garland highlights key trends in modern penal policy, critics argue this view may not apply to all societies equally and may understate efforts still made toward restorative justice and rehabilitation in some areas.