The very definition of punishment in America has been subject to a variety of changes, and has served as the basis for much debate over the course of America's history. In Penitentiaries, Reformatories, Chain Gangs , Mark Colvin tackles the subject of penal change in America by examining three case studies which represent shifts in the interpretation of punishment specifically during the nineteenth century: the rise of penitentiaries in the Northeast; the changes in the treatment of women offenders in the North; and the transformation of punishment in the South after the Civil War. Colvin uses these case studies to apply four theoretical explanations of penal change, shedding light on both the history of penal authority and the current state of the system today. An engrossing and highly relevant volume, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, Chain Gangs is a comprehensive investigation of punishment and its meaning past and present.

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About the author

Mark Colvin is Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs
Book Subtitle: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America
Authors: Mark Colvin
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299262
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Softcover ISBN: 978-0-312-22128-7Published: 11 February 2000
eBook ISBN: 978-0-312-29926-2Published: 14 August 1997
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 294
Topics: Urban Studies/Sociology, Criminology and Criminal Justice, general, History of the Americas, Social History, Prison and Punishment, Modern History

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

Front Matter

Introduction

Rival Theories of the Transformation of Punishment Systems and Penal Practices

Case Study One:

Front Matter

Case Study Two:

Front Matter

Case Study Three:

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book

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