A critical criminological theory arguing that what counts as a just punishment, what forms of execution are considered acceptable, and who is deemed deserving of state
violence are not
natural or divinely ordained but socially constructed through historical struggle, cultural values, and
power relations. The theory examines how punishment changes: from public
torture to imprisonment, from execution for theft to life sentences, from burning heretics to lethal injection. It shows that these shifts reflect changing social norms, economic systems, and technologies of control, not a simple moral progress. The theory challenges any claim that current penal practices are the only rational or humane options.
Example: “The theory of the social construction of punishments and executions explained why the
guillotine was once seen as ‘humane’ and is now seen as barbaric—not because suffering changed, but because
society’s construction of legitimate
violence shifted.”