Abstract

TONKONOFF COSTANTINI, Sergio E.. The Social Functions of Crime and Punishment: A Comparison between the Perspectives of Durkheim and Foucault. Sociológica (Méx.) [online]. 2012, vol.27, n.77, pp.109-142. ISSN 2007-8358.

The aim of this article is to examine the positions of Durkheim and Foucault regarding crime. The author's more general hypothesis is that both share the idea of a hidden functional nexus between criminal transgression, criminal punishment, and social order. Once established this agreement, he seeks to identify their main contrasts. Here, the hypothesis is that the two authors develop different modes of understanding the constitution and reproduction of a society, and, therefore, their interpretations of the history of punishment are different regarding both the importance and the role that they assign to the issue of crime in modern social orders.

Keywords : criminal punishment; criminality; symbolic function; strategic function; punitive turn.

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