A Comparative Approach to the Relationships between the Labor Market and the Penal System

Studies on the sociology of punishment suggest that social and economic structures of the society influence not only the number and the nature of committed crimes but also the qualitative and quantitative changes of punishment. The primary theories on the relationship between penal system and the labor market puts an emphasis on the function of the prison as a mechanism for controlling the surplus labor market and taking economic advantages of its working forces in the prison factories. From this point of view, penal strategies are produced and developed in the context of especial model of production system. During the last few decades, hypotheses regarding the relationship between the labor market and the penal system have been tested and developed in the different contexts. Taking advantage of quantitative and qualitative research methodology, this article tries to compare the impacts of changes in the economic system and the labor market on the development and reform of the penal systems, in particular the penal sanctions, in Germany, USA and Iran.