Abstract

The text reconstructs the themes and the main theoretical problems of the course taught by Foucault at the Collège de France in 1971-72 entitled "Théories et institutions pénales". The publication of the course of 1971-72 concludes the edition of Foucault's courses at the Collège de France. The Foucault's lectures have as their object the genealogy of the criminal justice system that is formed in France during the repression of popular movements and riots between the first and the second half of the seventeenth century. In this historical moment for Foucault was born the «visible body of the state» that sets and anticipates the state apparatus of modernity.