The paper aims to conceptualize citizenship sanctions as a distinct group of state-imposed restrictions on the rights of criminal offenders. Observing the persistence of specific sanctions, such as criminal disenfranchisement and citizenship deprivation in the comparative perspective (such as in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) the paper argues that these and similar measures may be analytically distinguished from other sanctions such as punishment and security measures. To work out their nature – and to propose a consistent way of distinguishing them from other similar sanctions – the article develops two criteria: a) impact – how they touch upon the citizenship status and b) instrumentality – the extent to which they are necessary to achieve the aims of punishment. Combining these two criteria permits us to classify all state-imposed sanctions as well as to demonstrate that citizenship sanctions fall outside the boundaries of criminal law. The paper concludes by spelling out some normative implications of this analytical engagement.
