Lineamenti di una sociologia concettuale della pena. L'ipotesi della teologia penale e la prospettiva genealogica

The essay presents the features of a conceptual sociology of punishment and is the provisional theoretical pendant of a previous program presented with regard to a historical sociology of prison. By placing itself within the critical paradigm of genealogy applied in the sociological field, the conceptual sociology of punishment identifies the relationship between the crime and the sanction as a fundamental problem. In particular, it reconsiders the sense attributed to punishment in the western tradition, that is, as pain and suffering inflicted on the condemned according to variable means and measures, in a phenomenology that extends from the death penalty to torture, to finally reach detention as the main form of punishment. In the following pages, we will try to start a sociologically oriented reflection on the discussion of the ontology of punishment, which is to say about the meaning of punishing and that of criminal law. After considering two recent studies that allow the theme to be posed in the indicated sense, albeit with some limitations, Émile Durkheim's thought will be examined as a significant case of a sociological reflection that is exercised exactly in the perimeter indicated, offering a glance penetrating and results that seem to take on an unprecedented importance today. Lastly, the interpretative framework will be outlined within which to develop the reflections outlined.