IntroductionThe chapters in Part On

Introduction
The chapters in Part One described various principles of punishment which have been advocated by philosophers and other social and legal theorists. Often, these penal philosophies' imply a penal strategy: punishments of graduated severity are concomitants of deterrence and proportionality; rehabilitation as a penal rationale leads to therapeutic and/or educative penalties; protection leads to lengthy imprisonment for those considered dangerous. What the philosophers do not, in the main, concern themselves with is why, in different places or at different times, societies use different kinds of penal strategy. Why, for example, did punishments such as ducking stools and stocks go out of fashion? Why have so many industrial democracies given up capital punishment? Why has imprisonment become such an important form of punishment? These questions - the kinds of punishment favoured by particular societies, the changes in penal strategy that have taken place - are the central concerns of sociologists who have taken punishment as a topic of enquiry.