Punishment : a comparative historical perspective / Terence D. Miethe, Hong Lu. electronic resource

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-229) and indexes.

1. Introduction : the punishment response -- Punishment and types of sanctions -- The functions of punishment -- The nature of punishment and societal complexity -- Effectiveness of criminal and civil sanctions -- Disparities in criminal and civil sanctions -- The value of a comparative historical approach -- The current approach -- Suggested readings -- 2. Punishment philosophies and types of sanctions -- Philosophies of punishment -- Retribution -- Incapacitation -- Deterrence -- Rehabilitation -- Restoration -- Types of formal and informal sanctions -- Economic sanctions -- Monetary fines -- Financial sanctions in civil litigation -- Other economic sanctions -- Incapacitative sanctions -- Banishment and exile -- Incapacitative devices -- Incapacitative structures -- Other types of incapacitation -- Corporal punishment -- Flogging -- Branding -- Mutilations -- Capital punishment -- Summary -- Suggested readings -- 3. Contemporary punishments in comparative perspective -- Basic problems in comparative studies -- Economic sanctions -- Incapacitative sanctions -- Corporal punishment -- Geographical differences in capital punishment -- The Middle East -- Caribbean countries -- Asian countries -- Africa -- North America -- Central America -- South America -- Europe -- Oceania -- Level of economic development -- State-sponsored violence and civil unrest -- Summary -- Suggested readings -- 4. Punishment in American history -- Overview of structural features -- Historical context for sanctions -- Colonial America -- Economic punishment -- Incapacitative sanctions -- Corporal punishment in colonial times -- Statehood, slavery, and the Western frontier -- Capital punishment -- Lynchings in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- Social control on the American frontier -- Twentieth-century practices -- Economic sanctions -- Incapacitative sanctions -- Corporal punishment -- Comparative analysis with other Western societies -- Similarities with Western European traditions -- Differences with Western European practices -- Summary Suggested readings --

This book identifies and examines the sources of similarities and differences in types of economic punishments, incapacitation devices and structures, and lethal and non-lethal forms of corporal punishment over time and place. The authors survey punishment responses to crime and deviance across different regions of the world and in specific countries like the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia.