The Literary Encyclopedia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jeremy Bentham: The Panopticon (1791)

By Robert Clark (University of East Anglia, Norwich)

Indexing Data:

  • Domain: Law, Philosophy, Politics.
  • Genre: Treatise.
  • Country: England, Britain, Europe.

Life, Works and Times

Reader Actions

Jermey Bentham, Samuel Bentham and Willey Reveley, Penitentiary Panopticon 1791.

Bentham’s Panopticon has considerable historical importance in the history of penal reform, having been one of the most carefully elaborated blueprints for the systematic penal institutions which began to replace the gaols and bridewells, medieval in origin, which had been intended only as holding stations before criminals were fined, sent to the stocks

This article in full comprises 1019 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership,
please click here.

Published 19 September 2002

Citation: Clark, Robert. "The Panopticon". The Literary Encyclopedia. 19 September 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10390, accessed 20 November 2009.]