Discipline, Docility and Disparity

Corporal punishment as a sanction for criminal offenders has a long global history. While most North American and European countries have abandoned such methods, corporal punishment is still a mainstay of criminal justice in many parts of the world. Employing a Foucauldian framework, we posit that the distribution of social power plays a determinative role in the retention of corporal punishment practices. Using economic disparity as a proxy for social power, we find that countries with greater relative economic inequality are more likely to employ corporal punishment as a possible sanction against criminal offenders.