Confronting Penal Excess: Retribution and the Politics of Penal Minimalism

Author: David Hayes
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509917976

Published In: November 2019
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781509952137

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This monograph considers the correlation between the relative success of retributive penal policies in English-speaking liberal democracies since the 1970s, and the practical evidence of increasingly excessive reliance on the penal state in those jurisdictions.

It sets out three key arguments. Firstly, that increasingly excessive conditions in England and Wales over the last three decades represent a failure of retributive theory. Secondly, that the penal minimalist cause cannot do without retributive proportionality, at least in comparison to the limiting principles espoused by rehabilitation, restorative justice, and penal abolitionism. Thirdly that, accordingly, another retributivism is necessary if we are to confront penal excess. Hayes offers a sketch of this new approach, ‘late retributivism’, as both a theory of punishment and of minimalist political strategy, within a democratic society.

Centrally, criminal punishment is approached as both a political act and a policy choice. Consequently, penal theorists must take account of contemporary political contexts in designing and advocating for their theories. Although Hayes’s inquiry focuses primarily on England and Wales, its models of retributivism and of academic contribution to democratic penal policy-making are relevant to other jurisdictions, too.

Introduction: The Politics of Penal Minimalism

I. The Pursuit of the Minimal Penal State in an Age of Excess

II. The 'Problem of Punishment'

III. The Structure of this Book

PART I. DEFINING PENAL EXCESS:

Chapter One: Penal Excess and Penal Minimalism

I. Conceptual Foundations: Penal Excess, Moderation, and Minimalism

II. Political Foundations: Penal Minimalism as a Public Good

III. Conclusion: Two Spatial Metaphors for Penal Excess

Chapter Two: Penal Excess in England and Wales

I. Mass Punishment: Excesses of Size

II. Punishing the Poor: Excesses of Shape