우리나라 대부분의 수출입화물은 해상을 통하여 운송되고 있고, 이 과정에서 선원의 과실에 의한 해양사고는 계속해서 발생하고 있다. 이러한 해상교통사고를 일으킨 사람은 육상교통사범과 비교하여 볼 때, 법 적용에 있어서 과도한 형벌권의 행사와 사고처리과정에서 부당한 대우를 받고 있고 법률의 체계성 측면에 있어서도 문제가 있다. 국가형벌권의 행사는 일정한 한계 내에서 제한적이고 개인의 기본권을 침해하지 않는 한도 내에서 정당화될 수 있다. 그러나 국가가 형벌권을 행사하기 위해서는 비례성의 원칙, 책임원칙, 형벌의 최후 수단성, 형벌의 범죄예방 효과, 형사사법기관의 효율성 등을 고려하여 행해져야 한다. 이러한 원리들을 바탕으로 해상교통사고처리 분야에서 기존의 법률을 개선하고, 가칭「해양사고처리특례법」을 제정함으로써 해상교통사범과 도로교통사범과의 형평성을 확보하고 사고의 재발을 방지할 수 있을 것이다.

The direction of revising the Law of Criminal Punishment Execution should consider the very idea of the Constitution. In concrete, the rights of the convicted criminals should be protected in the name of their basic rights which are guaranteed in the Constitution. Many revisions have been done in the law of criminal punishment execution in a way that the law protected inmates' basic rights but still many things left untouched. Basically it is true that correctional laws tend to permit inclusive discretionary power of authorities in order to control and supervise troublesome criminals. In turn, the inclusive discretionary power gives room for authorities to overuse the power and results in the violation of constitutional rights of inmates. To resolve the conflicts between the idea that inmates have their consitutional rights and it should be protected in the one hand, and the reality that basic rights of inmates could be confined as necessary on the other hand, we should discuss more concretely about the scopes and ranges of inmates' rights and the valid criteria for limiting their rights. and the execution law should reflect this efforts.

This study is designed to introduce perspectives of sociological understanding for criminal punishment. The basic stance of sociology of punishment is that we should consider social contexts under which penal policy and criminal justice activities are constructed and processed. This notion is quite different from the existing penological approach to the enterprise of crime control : it focuses on finding the best way to deter criminals from committing crimes and evaluating the most effective correctional programs and punishment devices. On the contrary, the sociology of punishment seeks to understand punishment within the broader social environments such as economic and political contexts. According to the sociological account of the function of punishment, a main role of punishment is not confined in its instrumental purposes. It also serves as an indicator to represent the society itself. Based on this line of understanding, this article first clarifies the concept and functions of punishment in sociological terms and then introduces explanations for changes in forms of punishment suggested by Durkheim, Marxist penal sociologists and Foucault. Next, it reviews many empirical studies that consider social, economic, political contexts for explaining crime control practices such as imprisonment. In conclusion, this study encourages further research adopting the sociological lenses in exploring criminal justice practices.