Tous droits réservés © Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2007 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Document generated on 08/27/2021 8:42 p.m. Criminologie Grandeurs et misères de la politique pénale au Canada : du réformisme au populisme Pierre Landreville Peines et pénalité au Canada. Autour des travaux de Pierre Landreville Volume 40, Number 2, automne 2007 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/016850ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/016850ar See table of contents Publisher(s) Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal ISSN 0316-0041 (print) 1492-1367 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Landreville, P. (2007). Grandeurs et misères de la politique pénale au Canada : du réformisme au populisme. Criminologie, 40(2), 19–51. https://doi.org/10.7202/016850ar Article abstract During the last few decades, observers have noticed a strong toughening of penal policies and practices, especially in the USA. Many, among them David Garland and Loïc Wacquant, have tried to document and explain this punitive turn. This thesis of the “globalisation” of that punitive turn has given rise to a number of reactions and interrogations and has been put into question in Canada. In spite of some efforts to empirically document these modifications, many theoretical discourses on the effects of globalisation are based on too superficial and succinct analysis. That is why, in this article, we emphasize what has happened in this field in Canada in the last half-century, before attempting to highlight the major trends and attempt to outline explanatory hypothesis.