The analysis emphasizes that the institutional framework of modern penology tends to narrow our perceptions of punishment and also to obscure its social ramifications. Thus, it is crucial to understand the major theoretical perspectives on punishment. These include Durkheim's emphasis on punishment's moral effects, Foucault's view that disciplinary punishments operate as power-knowledge mechanisms within broader strategies of domination, the cultural approach of Robert Elias, and the Marxist perspective. The analysis concludes that each approach represents an incomplete, but useful perspective on different aspects of punishment and that future discussions should consider punishment to be a complex social institution that should be analyzed as part of mainstream sociology. Footnotes, index, and 331 references (Publisher summary modified)