![handle is hein.journals/punscty1 and id is 1 raw text is:
Copyright t,; SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks, CA
and New Delhi.
Vol 1(1): 5-10
[1462-4745(199907)1:1;5-10;008224]
PUNISHMENT
& SOCIETY
Editorial
Punishment and society today
DAVID GARLAND
New York University, USA
Punishment has always presented practical challenges and moral dilemmas for social
organization, just as it has always exerted a profound fascination for the literary and
popular imagination. Penal institutions of some kind are necessary features of any
orderly society, but their necessity and universality does nothing to prevent them being
deeply problematic aspects of social life. The modern institutions of punishment are
especially prone to conflicts and tensions that tend to undermine their effectiveness and
legitimacy as instruments of social policy. These conflicts - between condemnation and
forgiveness, vengeance and mercy, the sanctity of law and the humanity of compassion,
social defense and individual rights, the urge to exclude and the dream of rehabilitation
- set up complex, ambivalent sentiments that colour the day-to-day experience of those
caught up in penal relations, whether as administrators and officers, inmates and clients,
or as members of the public in whose name penal sanctions are nowadays imposed.
Little wonder, then, that the history of penality has been one of reform and reaction, of
false dawns and disappointed optimism, particularly in the modern period when the
state's institutions of punishment have been viewed not just as instruments of
retribution and political power but also as mechanisms of reform and crime control.
The modern criminal justice state, developing in the wake of the Enlightenment as one
of the pillars of the liberal democratic polity, established an ambitious set of
expectations: not just 'doing justice', enforcing the law and punishing wrongdoers, but
also reducing crime rates by reforming convicted offenders and deterring those others
who might be tempted. The recurring failure to fulfill these expectations has ensured
that, for most of the modern period, penal questions have periodically troubled policy-
makers and, from time to time, have become a focus for public concern and
involvement.
At the present time, penal issues have taken on a significance for politics and for
popular culture that makes the question of crime and punishment one of the most
pressing problems of our age. This is true of much of the developed world, not least the
new democracies that have grown up in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, many
of which are struggling to free themselves of the repressive penal practices of the past era
while simultaneously facing the challenge of rapidly increasing crime rates and chronic
economic instability. The most egregious signs of the new urgency of penal matters are
from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/punscty1&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most