Punishment and social control : essays in honor of Sheldon L. Messinger / Thomas G. Blomberg and Stanley Cohen, editors.

New York : Aldine de Gruyter, [1995]

©1995

HV9469 .P86 1995

0202304973 (cloth : alk. paper)
9780202304977 (cloth : alk. paper)

x, 318 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

(OCoLC)32548408

All deviance-control reforms or policy shifts can be observed in two ways. First, there are the ideas, concepts, theories, ideologies, or knowledge claims that are supposed to have informed the policy. Second, there are the observable ways in which the policy has been practiced or implemented. These two aspects - theory and practice, ideas and implementation, knowledge and power - are related, but they are not the same. This volume explores that problematic relationship, which might be seen as one between intentions and consequences. What accounts for the apparently permanent gap in the history of social control between good intentions leading to bad consequences? One line of argument suggests that the original intentions have been undermined by bureaucratic convenience or professional self-interest. In other studies, those original intentions are themselves suspect - riddled by ideological contradictions or masks for political-economic interest and other historical imperatives. The essays in this volume are connected by a concern with the elements involved in the interface between the ideas and policies associated with law and punishment. Among the major questions raised are: Is what is alleged to be "new" really new? Are continuities more striking that discontinuities? How are we to explain any changes? And what effect do these changes have?

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online version: Punishment and social control. New York : Aldine de Gruyter, c1995 (OCoLC)604097462
Online version: Punishment and social control. New York : Aldine de Gruyter, c1995 (OCoLC)608499590

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