Punishment

Purpose of Punishment (Newburn):

  • Rehabilitation: Aims to discourage reoffending.

  • Deterrence: Seeks to prevent potential offenders from committing crimes in the future.

  • Restorative Justice: Focuses on criminals making amends to their victims for the harm caused.

  • Protection of Society: Involves incapacitating offenders by removing them from society to prevent further harm.

  • Boundary Maintenance: Reinforces social norms and values, reminding people of what is acceptable behaviour.

  • Retribution: Punishes criminals because they deserve it for their crimes, adhering to the principle of "just deserts."

Perspectives on Punishment:

  • Functionalism:

    • Society requires a shared system of values to maintain moral cohesion. Laws represent this collective consciousness.

    • Durkheim suggests retribution provides an outlet for societal anger and reaffirms collective consciousness.

  • Marxism:

    • Laws reflect the ideology of the ruling class.

    • Punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus (Althusser), maintaining social order and keeping people in their place.

  • Weberism:

    • The state holds the sole power to punish, unlike historical contexts where churches or landowners held such power.

    • Legal Rational Authority dictates that punishment is based on impersonal rules and regulations, managed by a vast bureaucracy with checks and balances.

Changing Forms of Punishment: Foucault (Postmodernism):

  • Sovereign Power:

    • Public and physical punishments were displays of monarchical power rather than effective deterrents.

  • Disciplinary Power:

    • Shift from sovereign power to disciplinary power, where state power manifests through surveillance and monitoring.

Garland:

  • In the 1950s, the state practised ‘penal welfarism,’ aiming to rehabilitate offenders for reintegration into society.

  • Contemporary society has shifted to a ‘punitive state’ enforcing a ‘culture of control.’

  • The state controls crime and punishes offenders through:

    • Actuarialism

    • ‘Mass incarceration’ and Transcarceration

    • Politicians use crime control and a tough stance on crime to gain an electoral advantage.

Rusch and Kirchheimer:

  • A Marxist perspective views punishment as social control and class domination.

  • Punishment evolves with changing economic needs.

  • The transition from physical punishment to transportation and cheap prison labour reflects the economic needs of the dominant class.

  • Brutality increased when the population was plentiful, while it declined as labour forces dwindled.

Purpose of Prison:

  • To serve as the ultimate deterrent, controlling crime and punishing offenders.

Effectiveness of Prisons as Punishment:

  • Yes:

    • Keeps society safe from dangerous criminals.

    • Resocialisation into social norms and values.

    • Education to prevent recidivism.

    • Negative prison experiences may deter reoffending.

  • No:

    • Can be a "school of crime."

    • Leads to labelling, potentially causing reoffending.

    • High recidivism rates indicate ineffectiveness.