Book excerpt: This book questions punishment as concept, social phenomenon and contemporary practice. It unpacks punishment’s nature and the assumptions that underpin it, examines its targets, objectives and implications, locates punishment and punitivity within their social contexts, and aims to unsettle the idea that there is something common-sensical, necessary and unavoidable about punitive justice. Questioning Punishment develops its argument through an innovative structure organised around five central questions: what punishment is; who punishment’s targets and subjects are; how punishment is perpetuated and experienced; when and where punishment unfolds and why we punish. It ends by considering the implications of this enquiry to understandings of punishment and broader pursuits of justice. It is essential reading for all those engaged with the sociology of punishment and prisons, criminal justice, and theoretical criminology.