Abstract

This paper - given at a conference in his honour - discusses Massimo Pavarini's last book Governing Penality (2014 Bononio Press). It examines what he has to say, in the first part of the book, about the explanation of rising prison rates worldwide, as well as, in the second part of the book, his sharp criticisms of a variety of theoretical efforts to justify punishment. Above all it seeks to understand how the two parts of the book go together so as to show what Pavarini teaches us about the potential mutual relevance of, on the one hand, criminology and comparative criminal justice, and, on the one hand, and theorising about punishment.