SP476 Half Unit
Punishment and Penal Policy
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Leonidas Cheliotis
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Criminal Justice Policy, MSc in International Social and Public Policy, MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Development), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Education), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (LSE and Fudan), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Migration), MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Non-Governmental Organisations) and MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Research). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
All Social Policy Courses are ‘Controlled Access’.
Other than for students in the first category below, when applying for a course all students are required to provide a written statement explaining why they wish to take that course.
Statements are considered by the Course Convenor and, where merited by the statement, places are offered in the following priority order:
1. Students for whom the course is a ‘core course’ on their Programme Regulations (these students should already be allocated to the course in LSE for you – i.e. no written statement is required).
2. Students for whom the course appears as an ‘optional core course’ on their Programme Regulations (where students have to choose between a small number of core options).
3. Students for whom the course appears as an optional course on their Programme Regulations.
4. Other Social Policy students.
5. LSE students from Departments other than Social Policy.
Please note: The number of students that can be accommodated on most courses is limited. If a course is over-subscribed, places will be allocated at the Convenor’s discretion, based on student statements. Therefore, you are advised to have an alternative course in mind in case you are unable to secure your first-choice course selection.
If offered a place on a Social Policy course, please accept the place as early as possible. NB: Offers will ‘time-out’ after 48 hours and the place will be offered to another student. If you wish to reject an offer, please do so as early as possible so that the place can be offered to one of your fellow students.
Close of Course Selection is on the 10 October 2025 (dependant on availability of course places).
Please Note: No places will be offered on Social Policy courses UNTIL 1pm on 29th September 2025.
For queries contact: socialpolicy.msc@lse.ac.uk
Course content
This course runs as a half-unit option, and explores punishment and penal policy from a range of comparative perspectives. Focusing on Anglophone jurisdictions and the rest of the world in equal measure, the course considers in depth a wide variety of historical and international comparative studies of punishment and penal policy, both from the field of criminology and beyond. In so doing, the course critically examines theoretical frameworks and empirical research on such issues as:
- the forms state punishment has assumed over time and in different national and regional contexts;
- the array and relative significance of the reasons why punishment and penal policy may develop, qualitatively as well as quantitatively, in particular ways at given historical junctures and in different jurisdictions;
- the relationship between political systems and punishment, with particular reference to processes of democratisation;
- the links between penal policy and different forms of economic organisation, from preindustrial capitalism to welfare capitalism and neoliberalism; and
- the role of punishment in society as explained through psychosocial theories and research
Thanks to its substantive foci and broad comparative approach, the course enhances provision in the School in the field of penology (e.g., the course ‘Explaining Punishment: Philosophy, Political Economy, Sociology’ (LL4CL), taught by Professors Lacey and Ramsay in the Law Department).
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
All teaching will be in accordance with the LSE Academic Code which specifies a minimum of two hours taught contact time per week when the course is running in the Autumn Term (AT) and/or Winter Term (WT). Social Policy courses are predominantly taught through a combination of in-person lectures and In person classes/seminars. Further information will be provided by the Course Convenor in the first lecture of the course.
Formative assessment
Essay in Winter Term Week 9
Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.
Students will be required to submit a 1,500-word essay on one of the topics addressed in the course.
Indicative reading
- Alexander, M. (2010) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York and London: The New Press.
- Brown, M. (2009) The Culture of Punishment: Prison, Society, and Spectacle. New York and London: New York University Press.
- Dumm, T. L. (1987) Democracy and Punishment: Disciplinary Origins of the United States. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
- Garland, D. (1985) Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies. Aldershot, UK: Gower.
- Gottschalk, M. (2014) Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Karstedt, S. (ed.) (2009) Legal Institutions and Collective Memories. Oxford: Hart.
- Lacey, N. (2008) The Prisoners’ Dilemma: Political Economy and Punishment in Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- McBride, K. (2007) Punishment and Political Order. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
- Reiner, R. (2007) Law and Order: An Honest Citizen’s Guide to Crime and Control. Cambridge: Polity.
- Salvatore, R. D., Aguirre, C. and G. M. Joseph (eds) (2001) Crime and Punishment in Latin America: Law and Society since Colonial Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Assessment
Essay (100%) in Spring Term Week 2
An essay on one of the substantive topics covered in the course, from a defined list of questions.
Key facts
Department: Social Policy
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 33
Average class size 2024/25: 17
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication