CRIM 3656 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Public Safety Canada, Penology, Social Stigma
18 Apr 2015
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Punishment emerges in a social environment social context defines the punishment. Early punishment sacred/spiritual/superstitious dominated what defined punishment: from communal/religious to science/reason, evil mind = sinner, status of women = evil, seen as sinners throughout history (eg. Eve) gender required degree of punishment: believed in devil (cid:0) needed exorcism; religion exerted control. Christianity (cid:0) wanted to punish non-christians and make people feel guilty if they didn"t believe. Only privileged/wealthy couldn"t be slaved: demonological theory popular eg. Witchcraft, burning at the stake to execute devil etc. Punish after death as well by not providing proper burial. Crime = breaking a promise (promise to behave) Punishment must be proportional, must fit the crime and applied equally (cid:0) state needs to produce order and harmony. Punishing excessively creates crime = we risk society. Humans aren"t naturally evil so behaviour must be handled reasonably. Control penitentiaries = reflect on behaviour (another view) Rational sentence length adjusted to severity of crime.
