ABSTRACT
At the end of the previous chapter it was noted that Rusche and Kirchheimer (1939: 173-176) distinguish two classes of fine associated with the modern era. The first and familiar one was the traditional penal fine associated with criminal justice, and this was to be the central focus of their attention. But a second form of fine already had become prominent when they wrote, one they referred to as ‘administrative’ and that related tomore or less mundane breaches of regulations. In their analysis, this in turn fell into two forms: violations of police regulations and violations of labour laws. While there are slight differences between these two forms (primarily related to the class of those being regulated) both were seen to be characterized by the fact that they do ‘not penetrate into the offender’s life’ and apply to ‘merely technical offences (that) are not accompanied by any feeling of guilt or wrongdoing’. The concern of such regulation is not with reforming, punishing or incapacitating – ‘the state’s sole interest in such offences is to compel obedience by levying sufficiently large fines… it levies fines because it dislikes the activity but it is not seriously prepared to put a stop to it’ (Rusche and Kirchheimer 1939: 176). The implication is that – apart from the death penalty – only by imprisonment does the state demonstrate serious intent.
