Social Deprivation and Criminal Justice

Abstract

This paper challenges the use of social deprivation in lawful punishment. In this context, ‘social deprivation’ refers not to poverty and its associated social ills, but to genuine social deprivation. Social deprivation is a persisting inadequacy of access to minimally supportive social inclusion. The paper draws on the idea of a general human right against social deprivation to show that there is a specific human right against socially privative punishments such as solitary confinement.

Keywords: Human rights, Ostracism, Punishment, Social deprivation, Social inclusion, Solitary confinement, Torture