ABSTRACT

Throughout much of the western world more and more people are being sent to prison, one of a number of changes inspired by a 'new punitiveness' in penal and political affairs. This book seeks to understand these developments, bringing together leading authorities in the field to provide a wide-ranging analysis of new penal trends, compare the development of differing patterns of punishment across different types of societies, and to provide a range of theoretical analyses and commentaries to help understand their significance.

As well as increases in imprisonment this book is also concerned to address a number of other aspects of 'the new punitiveness': firstly, the return of a number of forms of punishment previously thought extinct or inappropriate, such as the return of shaming punishments and chain gangs (in parts of the USA); and secondly, the increasing public involvement in penal affairs and penal development, for example in relation to length of sentences and the California Three Strikes Law, and a growing accreditation of the rights of victims.

The book will be essential reading for students seeking to understand trends and theories of punishment on law, criminology, penology and other courses.

part 1|118 pages

Punitive Trends

chapter 1|24 pages

The great penal leap backward

Incarceration in America from Nixon to Clinton

chapter 2|20 pages

Continuity, rupture, or just more of the ‘volatile and contradictory'?

Glimpses of New South Wales' penal practice behind and through the discursive

chapter 4|19 pages

Supermax meets death row

Legal struggles around the new punitiveness in the US 1

chapter 5|16 pages

The liberal veil

Revisiting Canadian penality

chapter 6|18 pages

Contemporary statecraft and the ‘punitive obsession' 1

A critique of the new penology thesis

part 3|49 pages

Non-punitive Societies

chapter 12|17 pages

Missing the punitive turn?

Canadian criminal justice, ‘balance', and penal modernism

part 4|71 pages

Explanations