ABSTRACT
Introduction: challenging the ‘penal equation’ Crime is a serious social problem to which society does not have a serious answer. Loud voices say that if our stock responses fail, we need more of the same. It should be easier to detect and convict criminals, punishments should be harsher. The resulting calls for ‘law and order’, with increasing emphasis on the latter, rely on what we may call the ‘penal equation’. This is the simple formula, ‘crime plus responsibility equals punishment’, that has informed our social control practices for 200 years. Crime requires punishment as retribution and deterrence, and criminal justice qualifies individuals as deserving of the state’s legitimate sanctions. It is this sense of justice, responsibility and desert, justifying social control through criminal punishment, which is the focus of this chapter.
