Abstract:
The social institution of "crime & punishment" is analyzed in its different functions in a hierarchy of levels of domination: conflict management interpersonally, (symbolic) enforcement of (a specific) morality by movements and interest groups, representation of (form and contents of) domination by the (state) organizations that administer "crime & punishment", social exclusion on the level of state and society. The institution of "weakness & care" is taken as opposed and complementary. The two conceptual constructions are used to show that different social and state practices and organizations can be interpreted as ( contradictory) combinations of these institutions, between which weights are shifted under different conditions of the mode of production.