Lecture 4: Punishment and Culture

Lecture 4 UP: Punishment and Culture 18/02/2020 GPS tags: GOV handbook on electronic tagging. Tagged to GPS locator – tracks movement wherever you go. Protection of victims of domestic abuse and stalking – can create a ‘no go’ zone, check attendance at rehabilitation programmes, monitor behaviour, ban someone from going near an address: evolution of technology. Cost £9 a day. In context: Foucault – operation of power through penal institutions – power, knowledge, body. Discipline as a mechanism of power regulating individuals in society – all tied to knowledge, which is acquired through observation. Attempts to achieve ‘normalisation’. Conformation due to surveillance. Electronic tags = anxiety of being under constant surveillance, forces you to behave as you are constantly under scrutiny. Garland: Sociological theories (Durkheim, Foucault, R&K) underemphasize meaning – culture needs to be brought in in two important ways: - Should be conceived as a cultural artifact Punishment also affects the formation of culture Acid attack in Iran – punishment was blinding, a fine and 10yrs in prison – 80% of people said this was NOT justified. Sharia law, retribution is allowed – but also advises for clemency – those who have the final say are the families of the victims. In most previous cases, reason why punishment hasn’t been carried out is because doctors wouldn’t cooperate – unspeakable and cruel act – prohibited under international law yet still implemented in certain places in the world. So – why do different societies justify different behaviours? Garland: Culture is not a theory – argues that cultural theory needs to be interconnected alongside other theories. Key Concepts: - Culture = those aspects of social life/action that involve meaning, ideas, beliefs, categories, feelings Culture consists of ‘mentalities’ (ways of thinking) and ‘sensibilities’ (ways of feeling) Mentalities = what we use to make sense of the world – what we bring to mind to render something ‘of value’. Own personal tastes are a part of ingrained culture. Sensibilities = subjective emotions, development of passions - Culture rooted in specific social, economic and political forms: different cultures in different countries ect, gender culture, ethnic culture? Geertz (1973) - culture and social structure are merely two aspects of the same ‘thing’ meaningful social practice – so the way society is structured is a reflection of the different cultures Dynamics: Social practices (inc. Penal) Formation of Culture Garland argues culture is important in two ways – determines punishment, yet is also affected by punishment. Sensibilities and mentalities have major implications for the way in which we punish - the way we think/feel about criminals, what is a tolerable form of punishment = all determined by cultural patterns. Elias: The Civilizing Process ‘a specific transformation of human behaviour’ Transformation from public displays of behaviour into more private and reserved actions – how these norms became internal – how conduct refines itself over time. i) ii) Social development of behavioural norms accompanied by the continuous development of science and technology which has encouraged a more ‘objective’, unemotive [and] impartial approach to the world Internalization of norms (conscience formation) which includes a refinement of conduct and increased levels of psychological inhibition as the standards of proper conduct become ever more demanding (Garland, p.217-8) Distaste for open dispay of violence, physical suffering, bodily functions, sex ect. Spierenburg’s Eliasian history of penal development from Middle Ages to late 20th century - - Critiques of changing sensibilities – decline in public execution and move into more secret forms of punishment – this is due to there no longer being a need for a public display of sovereign power – due to changing sensibilities and attitudes they inspire motivating penal change and reforms. Conscience amongst upper classes of civilization – one of the reasons punishment is now a more private matter. Punishment as an index of civilization Criticised by R&K – penal changes are not about humanity and lenience/civilization – these transitions pursue other conditions – economic need for labor, lack of need for state authority, increased use of surveillance. How culture influences punishment: Cultural forms proliferate around differences ‘examples of how cultural movements shape the forms of punishment in accordance with their terms… difficulties in trying to eradicate the informal operation of prejudices which affect the penal treatment of racial, ethnic and status groups long after such discrimination has become illegal, is testimony to the deep-seated nature of cultural patterns and their resistance to rapid change’ (Garland, 1990: 203) Juvenile justice – childhood as innocent, children as fragile and dependent – however, Buldger case – shifted cultural views towards punishment – no longer seen as innocent, but as an unpredictable monster. Age of criminal responsibility is 10yrs old. Gendered aspect of CJS: Special regimes for womens prisons, gender specific prisons – fewer women in prison than men, more lenient sentences for women (US) – humanitarian drive? Or depicts a change from severely condemning women to being more lenient? Deeply rooted in gender stereotypes – vulnerable/mad/fragile women V violent man. Racial distinctions: We shouldn’t discriminate or have distinctions between treatment of black and white offenders – but this does happen, in much more subtle and less obvious ways – ‘deep seated nature of cultural patterns and their resistance to rapid change’ (Garland) CULTURAL FORCES THAT INFLUENCE PUNISHMENT: - Religion: Punishment addressing sins, cleansing Humanitarianism: Driving force of rehabilitation, being fairer on offenders, change in methods of execution (injection v guillotine) Justice: Changes in the conception of justice – Enlightenment period - achieving fair and equal treatment for all, 19c – hedonistic opinion of an offender – justice then becomes about deterrence. 20c – emphasis on welfare. 21c – emphasis on psychological and social background and the way justice affects sensibilities which affects punishment– developed to deal with offender types – no longer trying to better the individual, rather we try to normalise them Penal culture has 2 key determinants = education & upbringing – which will always have roots and be shaped in broader culture. • Cultural artifacts embody penal culture i.e a prison as an artifact - item that sheds light on how a particular society lived/thought/expressed themselves – embodying penal culture i.e the way inmates interact ect. Penal culture itself has its own meaning and its own cultural displays – but does not exist in a vacuum – also shaped by broader cultural factors. Cultural theorists must reveal the link between penal culture and the outside world. • Punishment creates culture Culture is created, recreated and reshaped through social practices and institutions Penal practices and institutions contribute to this ‘Punishment does not just restrain or discipline society – punishment helps create it’ (Garland) Penal discourses ‘provide a continuous, repetitive set of instructions as to how we should think about good and evil, normal and pathological, legitimate and illegitimate, order and disorder’ (Garland) How does punishment say things? - speech-acts, performances, publications institutional practices, regimes technical/professional discourses, categories - spatial/architectural fabric of penal institutions Who are the audiences? - Offenders Penal professionals Victims Public What are the meanings which are signified/disseminated to these audiences? - Censure, condemnation Authority Penal identities Social relations CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION OF CULTURAL THEORY A culturist theory or a theory within other theories? - Phillip Smith: Argues there should be a fully culturalist theory of punishment Garland – Cultural theories should be theories but with other dominant theories of punishment – multi dimensional framework Race - - Brown: Those of us most distanced from the practice of punishment tend to be particularly harsh in our judgments… Because incarceration affects people along distinct race and class lines, it is only a privileged group of citizens who are removed from the experience of incarceration America – more African Americans in prison – yet it is the privileged groups that decide how we punish. Culture and new technologies & globalisation - Ferrell, Hayward and Young (2015) on globalisation Climate change ect brings with it new cultural opinions – immigration for example – shifts in culture. Brown (2017) on visual criminology and digital technologies Attraction to punishment and crime in modern society – Netflix docu-series, Black Mirror (White Bear – making punishers relive their crimes) SUMMARY: - Culture shapes punishment Punishment also produces culture Application to contemporary penal practices ‘Punishment does not simply echo what is already established: the law and its sanctioning practices play an independently constructive role in the creation of a cultural order’ (Garland)