Penal Systems

A penal system is a loosely bounded and differentiated structure of criminal justice institutions (police, prosecution, prison, parole, probation, and the like), crime control practices (such as sentencing and crime prevention), and criminological discourses (as reflected in criminal law, criminology, and penology). Penal systems tend to possess some autonomy in relation to their political environments, but the transnational dissemination of ideas about penality has helped produce similar changes in a variety of societies. The practices of justice and punishment have increasingly formed common practices and standards around the globe.

The trends include the following: decreased use of the death penalty; increased reliance on imprisonment; the diffusion of electronic surveillance; the decline of the rehabilitative ideal; a rising recognition of prisoners’ rights and of the need to treat male and female inmates differently; the spread of broken-windows and zero-tolerance policing, which emphasize cracking down on small instances of disorder as a means of controlling crime and improving quality of life; increases in lay participation at criminal trial; the emergence of plea bargaining and related forms of justice without trial; the victim's move to center stage in the criminal process and the rise of forms of expressive justice that aim to smooth and reflect victims’ feelings; penal populism and the politicization of crime and punishment issues, including the tendency for state officials to govern through crime issues and frames; the privatization and commercialization of prisons, police, and other penal institutions; a shift in criminological theory, from a stress on social and economic deprivation as the major cause of criminality to a view that regards crime as a consequence of inadequate social and internal controls; a growing awareness that white-collar crime causes serious harm and deserves a serious response; new styles of administration that stress the cost-effective management of risks and resources and the targeting of resources on offenders and locations that are predicted to be high risk; and the rise of new forms of restorative justice that aim to go beyond the usual imperatives of modern criminal justice systems—assigning blame for crime and imposing pain on offenders—to heal the harms that are caused by crime.

Not all penal systems are changing in all of these ways—and not all penal policies are becoming harsher—but the developments just described are both common and important, and they are driven in part by global dynamics. This entry summarizes five of the most notable global penal changes, in capital punishment, imprisonment, electronic surveillance, plea bargaining, and restorative justice.