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John Pratt and Anna Eriksson, Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism

Document Cited authorities 1 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorDavid Nelken
Published date01 December 2015
Date01 December 2015
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/1462474514533626
Subject MatterBook reviews
untitled Book reviews
633
transfer, and going back to the roots of parens patriae in juvenile court, Barrett
argues that we can f‌ind a more humane, safe, and enduring way to handle youth
crime.
Reference
Kupchik A (2006) Judging Juveniles: Prosecuting Adolescents in Adult and Juvenile
Courts. New York: New York University Press.
Victoria L Schall
University at Albany, NY, USA
John Pratt and Anna Eriksson, Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and
Nordic Exceptionalism, Routledge: London, 2013; 272 pp.: 9780415524735, £90 (hbk)
Recent comparative penological interest in the explanation and meaning of puni-
tiveness was kick-started by Garland’s Anglo-American-centric The Culture of
Control. Since then there have been important contributions to the debate by
Lacey, Mathews, Tonry, Waquant, Whitman, among many others. Pratt and
Eriksson’s study is a considerable and essential addition to this literature. It devel-
ops and consolidates Pratt’s (2008a, 2008b) earlier pair of articles in the British
Journal of Criminology dealing with Scandinavian (or what he now prefers to call
Nordic) exceptionalism. On the one side we have the Nordic cluster of countries,
with their relatively humane style of punishment, on the other, England, Australia
and New Zealand – the Anglophone cluster – tend towards excess in their use of
prison (the United States is not the focus here, though it lurks in the background).
The book’s thesis, elaborating on Pratt’s earlier ideas about popular punitiveness,
also has much in common with Cavadino and Dignan’s (2006) concept of ‘inclu-
sionary’ versus ‘exclusionary’ approaches to deviance. In Anglophone Liberal
countries politicians gain support by being ‘tough on crime’, and this is thought
to produce – or at least to signal – social cohesion. In Scandinavian countries
politicians gain in reputation by embracing a rational and rehabilitative approach
to punishment. What the authors successfully add, however, is a sociological his-
tory that shows us how these...

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