Punishment and Detention: New Challenges (CRIM40005)

This subject focuses on the idea that since the 1970s there has been a rise in punitiveness and a change in the character and purposes of involuntary detention in western countries. The subject asks students to identify and understand the different domains in which punitive tendencies might be found, including in areas such as immigration that traditionally have lain outside criminology’s interests. It will introduce students to key debates within contemporary criminology concerning the extent, substance and reasons for changes in punitiveness and the changing face of detention practices. The subject will explore through a series of case studies the experiences of groups upon whom the weight of such measures of have fallen – particularly, women, indigenous minorities and ‘illegal’ migrants. It will also consider some of the key penal mechanisms – such as parole release – that have become part of an increasingly fractious politics of punishment and detention. On completion of the subject students should have an understanding of both the data and explanatory and theoretical arguments concerning what has been seen as a major defining feature of most western nations' recent history: the inexorable rise of punitive attitudes and spread of new forms of involuntary detention.