The Cultural Embeddedness of Social Control:

Abstract

In this article I argue that, in order to understand the deep historical and present differences in the quality and quantity of punishment (as measured by imprisonment) between Italy and the United States, it is necessary to situate the specific punitive histories of these two societies within their cultural traditions. Such traditions are deeply marked by different concepts and experiences of religion, i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism. However, the relation between religious ethos and punitive practices is not one of causal determinism. Rather, cultural embeddedness fashions conceptual and rhetorical toolkits that allow for the shaping of specific punitive orientations, which respond also to other fundamental features of society, such as socio-economic conditions and political cultures and regimes.