This is 'technicist penology', as o

This is 'technicist penology', as opposed to the 'social analysis of penality' (Garland and Young 1983), which is simply aimed at helping those with the power to punish to put their ideas into practice. Technicist penology is a principal strand of so-called administrative or mainstream criminology (Cohen 1981; Young 1988). Administrative or technicist penology and criminology accept, rather than question, the aims of punishment espoused by the state. The problems they seek to resolve are second-order questions such as what type of prison regime will serve the needs of reform, or public protection, or retribution; how prisons can be managed so as to minimize disorder and maximize security; what kind of non-custodial penalties will satisfy the penal aims of protection, retribution and rehabilitation. They also address themselves to the values which law is supposed to encompass, such as fairness and consistency, but the focus is on whether the correct legal processes are followed, and they pay little attention to the outcomes of criminal justice and penal processes.