Punishment Theory

Big Think Home

Punishment Theory

Everything Videos Articles
Book cover of "Strange Stability" by Benjamin Wilson, featuring a green pen vertically centered on a beige background with red and green text—reflecting themes of nuclear deterrence.
Books
How a criminology concept became the backbone of the U.S.’s Cold War strategy
In this excerpt from "Strange Stability," Benjamin Wilson explores how the concept of "deterrence" went from explaining criminal behavior to becoming a nuclear strategy.
Benjamin Wilson
A group of people sitting around a table in a room, engaged in conversations amidst an air of exile.
The Past
From ancient Greece to Stalin’s Russia: The unique cruelty of exile
Exile is a kind of death of who you once were.
Jonny Thomson
Close-up of a lion's open mouth showing sharp teeth and tongue, painted in a realistic style with rich brown and yellow tones, capturing intensity that echoes themes seen in the neuroscience of inequality.
6mins
The Well
The incredible neuroscience behind the culture wars
What inequality and populism look like in the brain, according to a neuroscientist.
Molly Crockett
John Templeton Foundation
Thinking
Instead of the death penalty, let’s put dangerous criminals in a coma
Prison is an unreliable method of punishment. Let's do better.
Jonny Thomson
criminal justice USSR
The Past
In the Soviet Union, murderers had an easier time than political dissenters
Soviet researchers studied crime through a Marxist-Leninist lens. Under Lenin, a humanitarian approach to criminality briefly emerged, but dissipated when Stalin rose to power. 
Tim Brinkhof
Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.
© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.