Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies
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Description
This book is an original and significant contribution to the study of punishment, criminal justice and social regulation. Intended as an in-depth analysis and critique of the contradictions which affect contemporary penal policy, it traces the historical development and social significance of penal strategies, linking them to the social institutions and ideologies which they support. In the course of this investigation the book explores the relation of punishment to politics, the historical formation and development of criminology, and the way in which penal reform grew out of complex set of political projects which founded the modern ‘Welfare State’. Its analyses powerfully illuminate many of the central problems of contemporary penal policy, demonstrating how these problems grew out of the political positions and theoretical compromises which were established in the first years of the twentieth century. Punishment and Welfare deals with issues and events which have previously been neglected or misunderstood, and its arguments effectively disrupt both the old and the new orthodoxies of penal history. In particular it takes issue with those conventional penologies which describe penal reform as a beneficial product of enlightenment and welfarism, while also showing the more sophisticated arguments of Michel Foucault and his followers to be misconceived in other respects. In conducting this investigation the author has developed a method of research which combines detailed historical and textual analysis with a broader sociological vision, thus synthesizing two forms of analysis which are more often developed in isolation. The book will be of value to those working in penology, criminology and social administration, as well as to philosophers, historians and those working in the penal institutions of the welfare state.
Publication Date
1985
Edition
1
Recommended Citation
Garland, David W., "Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies" (1985). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 259.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/259
