NCJ Number
175955
Editor(s)
D Melossi
Date Published
1998
Length
553 pages
Annotation
Sociological dimensions of punishment are examined in this volume, one in a series of volumes dealing with criminological schools and theories and with approaches to particular areas of crime, criminal justice, and penology.
Abstract
The first part of the volume covers classical theories, including Durkheim's law of penal evolution, the psychology of punitive justice, the labor market and penal sanctions, the sociology of criminal justice and punishment, and changes in penal values. The second part focuses on measuring and comparing punishment, with emphasis on power concentration, legitimation crisis, and penal severity; comparative prison use in England, Canada, West Germany, and the United States; cross-national comparisons of imprisonment; and knowledge, domination, and punishment. The third part looks at punishment in terms of the dynamics of homeostatic punishment, the dynamics of oscillatory punishment, the labor market and imprisonment, the stability of punishment hypothesis, economic crisis and the rising prisoner population in England and Wales, and labor surplus and punishment. The fourth and final part discusses culture, history, and changing vocabularies of punishment. References, notes, footnotes, tables, and figures