ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of criminological thinking on punishment, which can be simply defined as ‘a legally approved method designed to facilitate the task of crime control’. Justifications of punishment are firmly rooted in broader moral and political philosophies that often conflict. The difference can be put simply using Barbara Hudson’s distinction, which maintains that the philosophy of punishment deliberates on how things ought to be whereas the sociology of control tells it like it really is through explaining why particular societies adopt specific modes of punishment. The problem of punishment is one of the most enduring in political theory and has developed into an established sub-discipline of moral philosophy. Reductivism justifies punishment on the grounds of its alleged future consequences. Deterrence is based on the idea that crime can be discouraged through the public’s fear of the punishment they may receive if they break the law.
