SOC205H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Penology
Document Summary
Punishment cannot be understood by reference to crime alone. An implication of this is to look as punishment as a social institution. Punishment is socially constructed and changes by time and history. It both shapes and is shaped by society. Punishment and society has its origins in early social theory. Durkheim"s work contains some of the first articulated notions of punishments and the changes in criminality in relation to changes in society. Rates of crime reflect the strengthening of bonds between people. Punishment strengthens social solidarity; as society develops , it doesn"t need severe punishment for solidarity. Mostly referenced to olden time public punishments where people witness and bond over punishments of wrong-doings. Marxists state that punishments have more to do with power dynamics. Punishments is used by the haves/powerful to secure their place in social structure (structural marxist) or extract wealth (economic marxist). Foucaultian states that punishments are created as the forms of governments changes.
