Final answer:
The question is about understanding various perspectives on punishment within the criminal justice system, focusing on aspects like retribution, rehabilitation, and the influence of societal power. It considers how these perspectives assess and react to the methods of punishment used in society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question explores different discursive tradition perspectives regarding punishments and their role in the criminal justice system. It prompts us to understand which perspective might emphasize certain aspects of punishment, such as retribution, rehabilitation, power, or critical views on the criminal justice system. These perspectives can include the functional perspective, which might lean towards viewing punishment as a means of maintaining social order, the symbolic interactionist perspective, which emphasizes the meanings attached to punishment, the conflict perspective, which highlights the role of power and inequality, and the feminist perspective, which may analyze punishment in the context of gender-based disparities.
Retribution focuses on the aspect of ‘just deserts,’ giving the offender their due punishment for the crime committed. Incapacitation aims to protect society by removing dangerous individuals. Prevention strategies focus on deterring crime through changing the incentives for criminal behavior. Rehabilitation seeks to reform the offender, while restoration concentrates on repairing the harm caused by the crime.
When considering these approaches, both retribution and incapacitation can be critical of the criminal justice system, but may differ in their views on whether the system is too harsh or too lenient. On the other hand, rehabilitation and restoration prioritize healing and reform over purely punitive measures.
Robert Merton's Strain Theory and Émile Durkheim's views on law and punishment can be applied to these discussions. Durkheim's concept of the 'collective conscience' and how societal responses to deviance vary based on societal complexity aligns with the discussion on the role of society in shaping punishment. Furthermore, Carol Gilligan's research on morality, which highlighted the importance of sympathetic reactions and a justice perspective in understanding moral development, could also be relevant in discussing how these perspectives address punishment.