Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory - Hardcover

'This is a superbly intelligent study, without doubt the best yet written on a topic, penality, which the author has done so much to develop. Its comprehensive coverage makes it a genuine review of the field. Its clarity of style and exposition will make it an ideal undergraduate introduction to the subject. Its scholarship and incisiveness of judgement 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. It is hoped that Oxford University Press will not wait long before publishing it as a widely accessible paperback ... It is a notableachivement.' Rod Morgan, Bristol University, British Journal of Criminology

`Stimulating and insightful' Sociology

`This is an impressive book. It ought to provoke much thought ... Garland succeeds admirably in demonstrating that punishment is a complex moral, cultural and social issue. Contemporary penology has been warned that it should no longer neglect this fundamental point.' The Juridical Review

'The book ... is well structured and written in simple and straightforward manner and would surely be an indispensable student text for courses in sociology and criminology especially as it now wisely appears in paperback.' Michael Addo, University of Exeter, Braiton Law Journal

This wide-ranging study provides the first comprehensive account of the forms, functions, and significance of punishment in modern society. Arguing that penal institutions are social and cultural artefacts as well as techniques of crime control, the book explores the ways in which penality interacts with a variety of social forces, including strategies of power, socio-economic structures, and cultural sensibilities.

In constructing his multi-dimensional account, the author re-assesses the interpretations of punishment offered by the Durkheimian, Marxist, and Foucauldian traditions, and goes on to add a more explicitly cultural reading of his own, drawing upon recent work in cultural anthropology and the ideas of Weber and Elias. Throughout the study, the insights of social and historical theory are brought to bear upon the details of contemporary penal practice in a way which illustrates both the particularities of punishing and the general character of modern society.

The resulting synthesis is a major achievement which will allow sociologists and historians to gain a better understanding of this complex social institution and will help policy-makers to develop more realistic and appropriate objectives in the field of penal policy.