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Comparing Foucault's Discipline And Punishment

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The most innovative aspect(s) of disciplinary institutions and methods according to author Foucault’s “Discipline and Punishment’ was the dismantling of the public execution deemed a disgusting spectacle of bodies torn apart by horses and torture, to the humanization of penal justice consisting of explicit general codes, unified rules concerning crime and punishment and the adoption of a jury system. (p 7-8). Punishment of crimes became less about the ripping apart of bodies to new hidden forms of punishment with a penal process where the body is not the element of pain or torture but the prisoner is subjected to an economy of suspended rights. During executions, where the law manipulates the body during executions a host of doctors, chaplains, …show more content…

(p.94) Thus the power to punish rested on semio-techniques consisting of five-six major rules. The rule of minimum quantity: which limits the advantages and desirability of committing crime. (p.94) Rule of sufficient ideality: e.g. pain at the heart of committing a crime is not actual pain but an act of inconvenience brought on by imprisonment for committing a crime, thus deterring people from committing future crimes. (p.94) The rule of lateral effects: implies the criminal penalties must have the most intense effect on those who have not committed crimes in order to impose a judgment of the crime as well as prove the criminal was punished in proportion to the offense (p.95) The rule of perfect certainty: e.g. precise measures and laws that clearly define a crime and penalties to be imposed for the crime (both must be understood by the judge, jury and the criminal). (p.95) The rule of common truth: Links the idea of truth of a crime will only be accepted once it is proven (Thus the prisoner is innocent till proven guilty)

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