ADM JUS 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Penology, Michel Foucault
21 May 2020
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Document Summary
Punishment is above all a moral process. Functioning to preserve the shared values and normative conventions on which social life is based. Best conceived at social and moral rather than purely penological. Argues that criminal law of society is, for the most part, an embodiment of basic moral values. Tend to provoke collective moral outrage and a passionate desire for vengeance. Wider population feels itself to be involved in the act of punishing, thus supplying the state institution with its social support and legitimacy. Despite all attempts to make punishment a rational, impassive, utilitarian process, it continues to be marked by the punitive sentiments and emotive reactions that are at the root of society"s response to crime. Instead of damaging the cohesiveness of society, crime sets in motion an elaborate moral circuitry that channels the energy of outraged sentiments into a socially binding ritual of moral affirmation.
