Public opinion and the right to punish: Fragments of a new theory of punishment

This article looks at the ways in which the notion of public opinion appears in Canadian parliamentary debates surrounding “tough on crime” policies. The public’s trust in the administration of justice is then at the heart of the legislative concerns and triggers a “seduction” strategy that ranks second the objective of the protection of society. This strategy seems to be based on an unusual conception of the right to punish, one that is different from what the theories of punishment of the “modern penal rationality” (Pires, 1998, 2001) have been defending since the middle of the XVIIIth century. At the very heart of this penal rationality, we refer to the unusual emergence as a theory of public approval and to its logics and principles as new obstacles for the evolution of the criminal justice system.