CRIMINAL SANCTIONSrequirements and relationships that characterized
‘‘The total institution’’ (Goffman 1961; Sykes 1958).
The sociological study of punishment suggests
that the adoption and application of criminal sanc-
tions are better understood as a reflection of
social, political, and economic reality than as the
product of moral consensus (Garland 1990).
The Evolution of Criminal Sanctions. Soci-
ologists have paid considerable attention to the
qualitative evolution of criminal sanctions. Special
attention has been directed to the relationship
between changes in the socioeconomic structure
and the evolution of criminal law in modern West-
ern societies (Mellosi and Pavarini 1981). Within
the more general discussion of law and society, the
study of punishment and social structure emerged
(Rusche and Kirchheimer 1939). The sociology of
penal systems argues that the transformation of
penal systems cannot primarily be explained by
the changing needs of crime control. Instead, the
sociological analysis of shifts in the systems of
punishment and criminal law are best understood
in terms of their relationship to the prevailing
system of production (Sellen 1976). Each society
generates criminal law practices and types of pun-
ishments that correspond to the nature of its
productive relationships. Research on punishment
and social structure has focused attention on the
origin and evolution of penal systems, the use or
avoidance of specific punishments, and the inten-
sity of penal practices in terms of larger social
forces—particularly economic and fiscal forces
(Rusche and Kirchheimer 1939). For example, in
slave economies where the supply of slaves was
inadequate, penal slavery emerged; the emergence
of the factory system decreased the demand for
convict labor, which in turn led to the rise of
reformatories and industrial prisons (Melossi and
Pavarini 1981). Although the economic analysis of
criminal sanctions dominated the early literature
on the sociology of punishment, later analysis has
focused more broadly on all five aspects of social
life (i.e., stratification, morphology, bureaucracy,
culture, and social control).
CRIMINAL SANCTIONS AND THE ASPECTS
OF SOCIAL LIFEThe comparative study of law has identified crimi-
nal law and criminal sanctions as quantifiable vari-
ables (Black 1976). By quantifying criminal law
and criminal sanctions it is possible to compare
both the type and the amount of law utilized by
one society versus another. The quantification of
law can then be correlated to the nature of social
life. The type and amount of criminal law can
either be correlated to individual aspects of social
life or the collective integration of all the variables
of social life. Social life consists of five variable
aspects: stratification is the vertical aspect of social
life (the hierarchy of people relative to their pow-
er), morphology is the horizontal aspect of social life
(the distribution of people in relation to each
other), bureaucracy is the corporate aspect of social
life (the capacity for collective action), culture is the
symbolic aspect of social life (the representation of
ideas, beliefs, and values), and social control is the
normative aspect of social life (the definition of
deviance and the response to it). The first four
aspects of social life collectively determine the
style of social control.Comparative legal studies have identified five
styles of social control; penal control, compensatory
control, therapeutic control, educative control and con-
ciliatory control (Fogel 1975). The response to nor-
mative transgressions under each style is consis-
tent with the general standard of behavior recognized
by society at large. Transgressions of the prohibi-
tion standard of the penal style of control require a
punitive solution in order to absolve the guilt of
the transgressor. Violation of the obligation stand-
ard of the compensatory style requires payment in
order to eliminate the debt incurred by the viola-
tion. Behaviors that fall outside the standard of
normality that characterizes the therapeutic style
require treatment to restore predictability to so-
cial interaction. Failure to meet the knowledge
standard of the educative style requires reeducation
in order to attain a full understanding of society’s
norms and underlying values. Disruption of the
harmony standard of the conciliatory style re-
quires resolution in order to reestablish the rela-
tionships among members of the community
(Fogel 1975).Criminal law and punitive sanctions are in-
versely correlated to other forms of social control.
In addition to law, social control is found in many
intermediate social institutions, including family,
churches, schools, occupations, neighborhoods,
and friendships. In societies where such interme-
diate institutions are dominant, the need for law