The Ethics of Crime & Punishment - 9
#appliedethics
To what extent is reform possible / morally required / the notion of reform coherent in
relation to the institutions in question?
Foucault’s Critique on Punishment & Discipline in the Modern State
Individualism in relation to rights and liberties
How should we centre our moral analysis of incarceration and criminal law reform?
Shift in focus on crime harm
Shift in moral analysis away from individualisation (the criminal) to broader notion of harm,
which redirects our focus to structure and broader systems of harm and justice
Reduction of moral critiques back to individuals
links to racialisation and gendering of crime
Enlightenment only white men could be punished because only they had liberty and
rights (only they could be deprived of these)
Michael Foucault
‘There can be no possible exercise of power without a certain economy of discourses of
truth which operates through and on the basis of this association.‘
Foucault’s analysis is both a critique of:
1. Incarceration system
2. More broadly the system of punishment in society
Subject of his analysis and critique = power
Foucault’s Qs Regarding Power:
1. What rules of right are implemented by the relations of power in the production of
discourses of truth?
2. What type of power is susceptible of producing discourses of truth in a society such as
ours are endowed with such effects?
What kinds of power are utilised / implemented through the technologies that we use, are
particularly impactful?
Modern Disciplinary Power (that governs society)
study of development of modern way of imprisonment which resulted from Enlightenment
not interested just in prisons, but the disciplinary technologies which had been perfected
, within such institutions
focus on discipline in his analysis
emphasises that reform is sometimes also the vehicle for increased control
although the prison system may have helped us ‘punish’ less, but within the institution, the
intention was arguably to punish better
System of the Panopticon as punishing ‘better’
Discipline is the motive control for all of society, not just prisons
this is evident in not only prisons, but also schools, hospitals etc.
Many other institutions were constructed based upon prisons. The prison model provided
a model of discipline and control for broader institutions in society.
He is not arguing that ‘discipline’ is an agenda of the state, but rather that the techniques
of discipline we see perfected in the prison system which have been reproduced by other
institutions have been converged and create the modern idea of disciplinary power.
If this does not arise out of some centralised authority about how people should be
disciplined, how does this disciplinary power end up being constantly produced?
us individuals have continued to perpetually embrace this system
Foucault: the necessary discipline in punishment is required by an evolving capitalist
system
Issues of punishment are not only emerging in Enlightenment context, but also are present
in the shift from a feudal to a capitalist society. The shift to a more decentralised system
among labourers who all contribute to the societal mechanism of discipline link to
individualism
3 Techniques of Control
1 - Hierarchical Observation
2 - Normalising Judgement
3 - Examination
examination from both others and ourselves
Form this picture, an idea of power as control over people emerges. Control over people
can be achieved merely by observing them and by getting ourselves to observe ourselves
leads to notion of disciplinary control.
#appliedethics
To what extent is reform possible / morally required / the notion of reform coherent in
relation to the institutions in question?
Foucault’s Critique on Punishment & Discipline in the Modern State
Individualism in relation to rights and liberties
How should we centre our moral analysis of incarceration and criminal law reform?
Shift in focus on crime harm
Shift in moral analysis away from individualisation (the criminal) to broader notion of harm,
which redirects our focus to structure and broader systems of harm and justice
Reduction of moral critiques back to individuals
links to racialisation and gendering of crime
Enlightenment only white men could be punished because only they had liberty and
rights (only they could be deprived of these)
Michael Foucault
‘There can be no possible exercise of power without a certain economy of discourses of
truth which operates through and on the basis of this association.‘
Foucault’s analysis is both a critique of:
1. Incarceration system
2. More broadly the system of punishment in society
Subject of his analysis and critique = power
Foucault’s Qs Regarding Power:
1. What rules of right are implemented by the relations of power in the production of
discourses of truth?
2. What type of power is susceptible of producing discourses of truth in a society such as
ours are endowed with such effects?
What kinds of power are utilised / implemented through the technologies that we use, are
particularly impactful?
Modern Disciplinary Power (that governs society)
study of development of modern way of imprisonment which resulted from Enlightenment
not interested just in prisons, but the disciplinary technologies which had been perfected
, within such institutions
focus on discipline in his analysis
emphasises that reform is sometimes also the vehicle for increased control
although the prison system may have helped us ‘punish’ less, but within the institution, the
intention was arguably to punish better
System of the Panopticon as punishing ‘better’
Discipline is the motive control for all of society, not just prisons
this is evident in not only prisons, but also schools, hospitals etc.
Many other institutions were constructed based upon prisons. The prison model provided
a model of discipline and control for broader institutions in society.
He is not arguing that ‘discipline’ is an agenda of the state, but rather that the techniques
of discipline we see perfected in the prison system which have been reproduced by other
institutions have been converged and create the modern idea of disciplinary power.
If this does not arise out of some centralised authority about how people should be
disciplined, how does this disciplinary power end up being constantly produced?
us individuals have continued to perpetually embrace this system
Foucault: the necessary discipline in punishment is required by an evolving capitalist
system
Issues of punishment are not only emerging in Enlightenment context, but also are present
in the shift from a feudal to a capitalist society. The shift to a more decentralised system
among labourers who all contribute to the societal mechanism of discipline link to
individualism
3 Techniques of Control
1 - Hierarchical Observation
2 - Normalising Judgement
3 - Examination
examination from both others and ourselves
Form this picture, an idea of power as control over people emerges. Control over people
can be achieved merely by observing them and by getting ourselves to observe ourselves
leads to notion of disciplinary control.
