Book Review: Punishment
| Published date | 30 April 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20662203241227724 |
| Date | 30 April 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Review
European Journal of Probation
2024, Vol. 16(1) 105–109
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/20662203241227724
journals.sagepub.com/home/ejp
Book Review
Kristin Drenkhahn, Fabien Jobard and Tobias Singlenstein (Eds.). Impending challenges to penal
moderation in France and Germany. A strained restraint. London: Routledge. Routledge Frontiers
in Criminal Justice, 2023; p. 282. ISBN: 978-1-032-18867-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-18868-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-25669-4 (ebk).
This concise volume (282 pages), edited by two German authors and one French author,
comprises thirteen chapters written by a total of ten contributors, including the three
editors. The contributors are adequately distributed between the two nations, France and
Germany, where the studies reported on in the book were conducted. The contributors’
primary affiliations lie within the realms of political science and law, and to a lesser degree
in media science. However, the three editors possess backgrounds in socio- or juri-
criminology.
As rightly observed by the editors, it is crucial to disentangle from the somewhat self-
centred Anglophone belief that their models, trends, and policies are automatically
transposed and transferable elsewhere, particularly to continental Europe. Does Europe
passively undergo Anglophone trends, becoming more punitive, or does it, as argued by
Snacken and Dumortier (2012), resist this movement? Few empirical pieces of evidence
seem to conclusively demonstrate either perspective. German criminologists may exhibit
disagreements on this matter; the French-language literature, however, has been clearer on
the existence of a punitive shift, whether in sociology, as noted by the authors, or in legal
sciences. The authors examine resistance (or lack thereof) to punitiveness in three do-
mains: the general population, politics, and the media. The editors explicitly state their
reluctance to engage in a comparison between the two states regarding the level of
punitiveness or to explain its causes. Instead, they aim to measure the representations,
discourses, and policies surrounding punitiveness.
To achieve this goal, the authors have concurrently undertaken four particularly
impressive parallel projects, with their methodology elaborated in detail in Chapter
4 authored by Jobard, Hub´
e, Laumond, Morisse, Nickels, and Ruffio. In the introductory
chapter (Chapter 1), these projects are referred to as ‘packages’. Package A outlines legal
systems and potential penalties. Package B has a more empirical focus, centring on public
opinion. It relies on a questionnaire distributed to a representative sample of 3000 in-
dividuals, including several vignettes. Notably, one vignette, presented on page 66, offers
as many as ten decision/penalty options explained in clear terms to participants. The
authors subsequently compare the opinions of the general population with those of
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