Oxford Readings in Socio-legal Studies
1 total work
Theories of punishment are of central importance to our understanding of notions like "justice" and "law". Why we punish, who we punish, and how we punish, are among the most controversial and theoretically challenging questions faced by scholars and students of law, criminology and philosophy. In this collection, two of the leading experts in the field present a series of key readings on theories of punishment in modern society. The collection is prefaced by an introduction in which the editors identify practical and theoretical problems, and demonstrate how legal theories of punishment can only be understood with reference to their wider social and cultural contexts.