CRIMINAL SANCTIONSmediated by an organized state that represents the
needs, values, and interests of groups that possess
the power to control the state. Such control in-
cludes the capacity to determine which behaviors
are considered to be criminal and which behaviors
are not. As a result behaviors more likely to be
committed by the less powerful are defined as
criminal while behaviors more likely committed by
the powerful are not defined as criminal (Bernard
1983; Reiman 1998). Furthermore, the conflict
view suggests that the application of both criminal
law and criminal sanctions are skewed in favor of
those with power. Within the conflict perspective
various theories are differentiated according to
their identified source of group conflict. Among
the major conflict theories are those that identify a
conflict of cultural groups (Sellin 1938), those that
identify a conflict of norms (Vold 1958), those that
identify a conflict of socioeconomic interests (Marx
1964), and those that identify a conflict of bureau-
cratic interests (Turk 1969). Despite their differ-
ent origins, conflict theories are united in their
assessment that criminal law and criminal sanc-
tions are utilized to support the average best inter-
est of those with power. As a result the state is
assumed to apply criminal sanctions in such a
manner that they are not perceived as overly coer-
cive while at the same time preserving the existing
power arrangements thereby maintaining the le-
gitimacy of criminal law (Turk 1969).
An Empirical Context for Criminal Sanctions.
Empirical assessments of criminal sanctions have
been primarily carried out within the contexts of
penology and the sociology of punishment. Penology is
a practically oriented form of social science that
traces and evaluates various practices of penal
institutions and other punitively oriented institu-
tions of the modern criminal justice system (Duff
and Garland 1994). Penology began as an exten-
sion of the prison itself thats sole purpose was to
evaluate the objectives of the institution and devel-
op more efficient ways of achieving these institu-
tional objectives. More recently penology has ex-
panded its inquiry to include the assessment of the
entire criminal sanctioning process (studying the
prosecution, the court process, as well as alterna-
tive sanctions such as probation, fines, electric
monitoring, community service, and restitution).
Increasingly, penology has been guided by the
major theories of crime causation thus becoming a
recognized area of study within the discipline of
criminology. Contemporary, penological research
serves as the empirical foundation for policy devel-
opment (Bottomley 1989). Despite its more recent
criminological grounding, penological research is
still viewed as primarily evaluative rather than
critical. Penology assumes an exclusively punitive
perspective toward transgressions of criminal law,
therefore, it is primarily concerned with the rela-
tive effectiveness of the various punitive responses
to criminal transgressions. The critical dimension
of penology is limited to identifying problems
within existing institutions and suggesting ways to
more efficiently achieve the goal of punishment.
Because penology is limited to the study of punish-
ment systems any questions concerning alterna-
tive models of crime control such as compensation
or conciliation are addressed by the sociological
study of punishment (Garland 1990).Unlike penology, the sociology of punishment
raises more fundamental questions concerning
the relative effectiveness of both punitive and
nonpunitive responses to normative transgressions.
Within the context of the sociology of punishment
special attention is directed to the way in which
society organizes and deploys its power to respond
to transgressions (Duff and Garland 1994). It is
primarily concerned with the relationship between
punishment and society. Punishment is examined
as a social institution that reflects the nature of
social life. The sociology of punishment is funda-
mentally interested in why particular types of so-
cieties employ particular types of criminal sanc-
tions (Garland 1990). In addition, the sociological
analysis of punishment examines the social condi-
tions that necessitate certain styles of normative
sanctioning such as the use of penal sanctions in
social situations that are characterized by high
levels of inequality, heterogeneity, and bureau-
cratic interaction (Black 1976). The sociology of
punishment also includes the study of correlations
between the application of various sanctions (e.g.
imprisonment, probation, fines, etc.) and demo-
graphic variables such as class, race, gender, occu-
pation, and education (Reiman 1998; Zimring and
Hawkins 1990). Because of the dominance of im-
prisonment as the preferred sanction for serious
criminal transgressions in Western societies much
attention has been directed to the effect of penal
confinement on prisoners. Sociological inquiries
into the inner world of the prison have examined
the social adaptation of prisoners to the unique