Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory (Studies in Crime and Justice)

Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory (Studies in Crime and Justice)

In this path-breaking book, David Garland argues that punishment is a complex social institution that affects both social relations and cultural meanings. Drawing on theorists from Durkheim to Foucault, he insightfully critiques the entire spectrum of social thought concerning punishment, and reworks it into a new interpretive synthesis. " Punishment and Modern Society is an outstanding delineation of the sociology of punishment. At last the process that is surely the heart and soul of criminology, and perhaps of sociology as well—punishment—has been rescued from the fringes of these 'disciplines'. . . . This book is a first-class piece of scholarship."—Graeme Newman, Contemporary Sociology "Garland's treatment of the theorists he draws upon is erudite, faithful and constructive. . . . Punishment and Modern Society is a magnificent example of working social theory."—John R. Sutton, American Journal of Sociology " Punishment and Modern Society lifts contemporary penal issues from the mundane and narrow contours within which they are so often discussed and relocates them at the forefront of public policy. . . . This book will become a landmark study."—Andrew Rutherford, Legal Studies "This is a superbly intelligent study. Its comprehensive coverage makes it a genuine review of the field. Its scholarship and incisiveness of judgment will make it a constant reference work for the initiated, and its concluding theoretical synthesis will make it a challenge and inspiration for those undertaking research and writing on the subject. As a state-of-the-art account it is unlikely to be bettered for many a year."—Rod Morgan, British Journal of Criminology Winner of both the Outstanding Scholarship Award of the Crime and Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association's Crime, Law, and Deviance Section David Garland is the Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University. He is the author of the award-winning studies Punishment and Welfare and Punishment and Modern Society . Punishment and Modern Society A Study in Social Theory By David Garland The University of Chicago Press Copyright © 1990 David Garland All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-226-28382-1 Contents Introduction, 1. The Sociology of Punishment and Punishment Today, 2. Punishment and Social Solidarity: The Work of Émile Durkheim, 3. Punishment and the Construction of Authority: A Reworking of Durkheimian Themes, 4. The Political Economy of Punishment: Rusche and Kirchheimer and the Marxist Tradition, 5. Punishment as Ideology and Class Control: Variations on Marxist Themes, 6. Punishment and the Technologies of Power: The Work of Michel Foucault, 7. Beyond the Power Perspective: A Critique of Foucault on Punishment, 8. The Rationalization of Punishment: Weberian Themes and Modern Penality, 9. Punishment and Culture: Cultural Forms and Penal Practices, 10. Punishment and Sensibilities: A Genealogy of 'Civilized' Sanctions, 11. Punishment as a Cultural Agent: Penality's Role in the Creation of Culture, 12. Punishment as a Social Institution, Notes, Bibliography, Index, CHAPTER 1 The Sociology of Punishment and Punishment Today 1. The problem of punishment today The aim of this book is simple. It sets out to provide a rounded sociological account of punishment in modern society, showing—at least in outline—how penal processes come to exist in their present form and with what kinds of consequences. To this end it employs the interpretative tools of social theory and the information and insights produced by historical studies, together with materials which are more properly penological. Such a straightforward project inevitably entails some presumptions which are not quite so straightforward. Most importantly, it presumes that juridical punishment is not the transparent and rather self-evident institution of crime control that it is commonly taken to be. Were this the case, a study of this kind would be rather unnecessary, there being little need to restate the obvious. But in fact punishment's role in modern society is not at all obvious or well known. Punishment today is a deeply problematic and barely understood aspect of social life, the rationale for which is by no means clear. That it is not always perceived as such is a consequence of the obscuring and reassuring effect of established institutions, rather than the transparent rationality of penal practices themselves. Like all habitual patterns of social action, the structures of modern punishment have created a sense of their own inevitability and of the necessary rightness of the status quo. Our taken-for-granted ways of punishing have relieved us of the need for thinking deeply about punishment and what little thinking we are left to do is guided along certain narrowly formulated channels.