Beyond American myopia: The state of theorizing in <i>Punishment &amp; Society</i>

Body horror, existential dread, and unresolvable moral dilemmas. These are enduring features of the human condition and central to the study of crime and punishment across time and space. What makes the field of punishment and society so compelling is its collective effort to try to understand and explain these dilemmas with academic rigor, discipline, and sincerity. It takes as its object of study suffering, pain and violence but also excavates traces of human dignity, stories of emancipation, and ongoing struggles for justice. Although the field coalesced over thirty years ago on the question of mass incarceration in the USA, punishment and society scholarship now includes a wider range of topics as scholars document the proliferation of state violence and rising authoritarian tactics across a range of societies, which ensnare more people, particularly those of color and noncitizens, within its grasp. This essay examines the current state of theorizing in the field, how and why it is up to the task at hand and why and where it may fall short. I argue the field's shortcomings are not due to claims of normativity but rather its myopic gaze of American exceptionalism. I call for better integration of more global, historical, and comparative work that pushes geographic, methodological, and theoretical boundaries. I highlight the field's pressing empirical challenges, significant empirical and theoretical contributions, its gaps and limitations, and suggest future research.