Historical Perspective Of Penology

Penology is the study of prison management and criminal rehabilitation. As a part of the social
science of criminology, penology addresses the theory and practice of societies and how they
attempt to prevent criminal activity and apply the appropriate punishment for it. It deals with
the treatment of those who are convicted of crimes and how they can be rehabilitated so that
they are no longer a threat to society. This study addresses many different topics concerning
the prison system, such as prisoner’s rights, prisoner abuse, and recidivism, as well as theories
about the purpose of punishments, such as rehabilitation, retribution, and deterrence.

Introduction
Philosophy of punishment is as old as man himself; when Adam Origin and history of
punishment

and Eve violated God’s commandment, they had been descended

The impulse of vengeance is recognized as the major doctrine

to Earth, and when ancient peoples shed blood, God created

humans. Therefore, the idea of punishment may be considered

as older than the human existence and consecrated in religious

teachings and holly books and applied by peoples of different

stages of human evolution, and even to this day. The current paper

highlights the history of penal development, and the origin and

philosophy of punishment. The classical school was founded in

for historical development of punishment. It is a punishment or

retribution that reflects both the instincts and positive self-feelings

inflicted for an injury or wrong. However, still there is deference

between vengeance and anger, as the first occurs deliberately and

remains for long time, while the second happens suddenly and for
short time. The essential elements of human psychology behind

vengeance are both the positive self-feeling and pugnacity by

which the actual action of revenge is reproduced and taking place.

Retaliation is considered also as other impulse supplying the lust

of vengeance for human and animal

the 18th century and its birth was as the result of prior barbarous

systems of penology. Before the advent of this school, criminal

were facing several types of barbaric penalties, such as isolation,

keeping him in snake pits…etc. Other methods of punishment

like squeezing, strangulating, burning and cutting the limbs of

despite most of system adopting modernized penal codes.

criminals were widely applied. The classical school’s thought was but still it is claimed that
the applied sanctions in those codes are

against barbaric and cruel techniques of criminal sanctions, and it derived from the emotion
of revenge and moral indignation of

was developed by philosophies of Rousseau, Beccaria, Bentham, primitive mankind. Most

of the well-known scholars of criminal

Feurbach, such thoughts will addressed in the present study.

Cesar Beccaria's Views about Penology

Cesare Beccaria was an Italian jurist, enlightenment thinker, and philosopher. In 1794, he wrote
On Crimes and Punishment. In this book, he talked against torture and the death penalty, but
he was most famous for laying a foundation of penology, which deals with the repression of
criminal activities and punishment of crimes committed. Beccaria was most famous for
declaring that “a punishment should fit the crime.” He meant several things by this, but most
importantly was his two main points. This first way he said that the punishment should fit the
crime is that the severity of punishment should parallel the severity of harm resulting from the
crime. This did not mean that if someone was a murderer, that they should be put to death.
Beccaria publicly condemned the death penalty because he said that the state does not possess
the right to take lives, and that it is not a very useful form of punishment. He stood for a more
deterrent function of the penal system. When he said it must match the damages of the offense
and parallel the harm of the crime, he was more referring along the lines of punishment and
incarceration. His second point was that the punishment should be severe enough to outweigh
the pleasure of committing the crime. For example, someone might look at sexual assault as
pleasurable, therefore the punishment needs to be severe enough for that person to think,
“Wow, the punishment is harsh, it’s not worth committing this crime.” If this wasn’t the case, a
rational person would weigh the gain with the consequence, and determine that the crime is
worth committing because if that’s only my punishment, then why not. People speed because
speeding tickets are simply fines, if you were to be booked and incarcerated, I’m sure people
would speed less. Not saying that this is how it should be, it’s just the most blatant example.
The problem with this second point is that it only applies to rational thinking people, and it
doesn’t really work on others.

Beccaria’s Theory:

There are three main legs in which Beccaria’s theory rests. Those are that all individuals possess
freewill, rational manner and manpulability. Beccaria, like all classical theorist, believe that all
individuals have freewill and make choices on that freewill. The second leg, rational manner,
means that all individuals rationally look out for their own personal satisfaction. This is key to
the relationship between laws and crime. While individuals will rationally look for their best
interest, and this might entail deviant acts and the law, which goal is to preserve the social
contract, will try to stop deviant acts. This ends up with the individuals and the society
rationally looking for satisfaction, and at times these interests clash. The third leg in which
Beccaria’s theory rest is manipulablibily, universally shared human motive of rational self-
interest makes human action predictable, generalable and controllable. The job of the criminal
justice system is to control all deviant acts that an individual with freewill and rational thought
might do in the pursuit of personal pleasure. This is made easier by the fact that human actions
are predicable and controllable. With the right punishment or threat the criminal justice system
can control the freewilled and rational human being. The problem the criminal justice system
has is finding the right punishment or threats.

In the treatise, "On Crimes and Punishments", Beccaria wrote a short chapter on preventing
crime because he thought that preventing crime was better than punishing them. He gave nine
principles that need to be in place in order to effectively prevent crime. To prevent crime a
society must

1) make sure laws are clear and simple,

2) make sure that the entire nation is united in defense,

3) laws not against classes of men, but of men,

4) men must fear laws and nothing else,

5) certainty of outcome of crime,

6) member of society must have knowledge because enlightenment accompanies liberty,

7) reward virtue,

8) perfect education, and finally

9) direct the interest of the magistracy as a whole to observance rather than corruption of the
laws.

If this nine principles are followed there would be less of a need to follow the other principles
of trial and punishments.

Jeremy Bentham's View about Penology

Jeremy Bentham was the intellectual leader and the real founder of English utilitarianism;
whose deep interest in public affairs covered the period from the American Revolution to the
Reform Bill of 1832. He was born in a rich lawyer’s family in 1748 in London. From the very
childhood, Bentham was scholarly and pedantic. He learnt Latin when he was only three years
old. He also learnt Greek and French and later on he devoted to the study of Jurisprudence and
legal philosophy. He received the degree of graduation at the age of fifteen from Queen’s
College Oxford. He had an instinctive interest in science and a distinctive talent for
introspective psychology. From his youth he showed a passionate devotion to social welfare,
identifying himself in imagination and determining to apply to the social sciences the methods
that were being worked out in the natural science.

Bentham held that punishment should be preventive and corrective rather than coercive and
retaliatory. It should be calculated to prevent the spread of evil and to secure the extension of
good. Punishment must not be inflicted where it was ineffective, groundless, needless or
unprofitable. It should be obviously justifiable and proportionate to the offence committed but
it must be sufficient to secure its ends. It ought to be able to prevent the offender from
repeating the offence. It should be individualized, qualitatively and quantitatively, to suit the
individual offender. The basic principles of punishment are:

1. Equable

2. Exemplary

3. Frugal of Pain

4. Remissible

5. Compensatory

6. Reformatory

7. Popular

8. Certain and not severe

According to Bentham, the only valid test of the adequacy of a punishment was its ability to
secure public welfare. He believed that the English criminal law was inhuman. He was in favor
of the reform of the criminal and the prisons and suggested the building of his moral
Panopticon, a wheel-shaped building for the housing and proper observation of the criminals.
He had a great faith in education as he wanted to bring about adult franchise, a responsible
executive, universal education and a representative parliament.

Neoclassical School of Penology

The neoclassical school of penology made significant
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909): Lombroso, an Italian physician,

was the first one to apply scientific methods for the explanations

of both crimes and criminality. He established the field of criminal

anthropology that studies the phenomena of “born” criminal.

contributions to the issue of assessment of penalty, as it laid

down the equation for quantum of punishment in accordance

to the degree of responsibility for the committed offence. Little

children and minors, insane, and imbeciles could, for example, be

benefited from the exceptions of applying principles of “free will’,

Lombroso developed the theory of hierarchical typology

as their crimes are committed under extenuating circumstances of criminal man and
founded criminal anthropology with his. The neoclassical school of criminology admits
variations book on Criminal Man. The most important point of Lombroso in criminal
conditions and assumes that some persons, such as researches was swam against the
degenerations. The clear-cut minors, insanes, and the intellectually imbeciles, cannot reason.
answer may is found his book of Criminal Man, still it can Thus, this category of people
must be specially treated and to be said that Lombroso was greatly impacted by phrenology
that

criminal justice system must look after its needs by deciding. he found it difficult to let
go (so to speak) of the cranium.

appropriate sentences.

Lombroso presumed that “the process of recapitulation usually

produced normal individuals. Someone who became criminal,

therefore, must constitute a throwback to an earlier stage of

biological development–atavistic degeneration”. For him, the

biological degenerations are displayed in the some sorts of

physical attributes carried by offenders–“sloping foreheads,

receding chins, excessively long arms, unusual ear size, etc.,–

resulting in the view of the ‘born criminal” .

Despite the assessment of criminal responsibility depends

on the old approach of the representatives of classical theory,

Beccaria and Jeremy, hitherto. The ‘Free-Will’ approach was

subjected to major modifications made by neoclassical approach

that discarded the classical assumption making all people capable

of rationality calculating rewords and costs for identical crimes

on the basis of free willed actions . For this reason the neoclassical

approach assumed that juveniles, the insane and intellectually

The keystone of Lombroso’s theory was that specific types of deficient persons are considered
not capable of rational criminals had “physical evidence of an “atavistic” or hereditary
calculation, such rule continued to be basic of current criminal sort, reminiscent of earlier,
more primitive stages of human

and juvenile justice systems all over the world .

evolution, such anomalies, named as stigmata of abnormal forms

or dimensions of the skull and jaw, asymmetries in the face, etc,

but also of other parts of the body” .

The neoclassical approach of criminology was a perspective that of relies classical entirely
approach’s upon the pioneers. early The philosophical classical thoughts approach.

Enrico Ferri (1856-1929):

Enrico Ferri, an Italian scholar, was

concentrated on issues related to pain and pleasure as motives born in San Benedetto Po,
February 25, 1856 and student of

for human conduct, while the neoclassical approach made grater Lombroso at the University
of Turin. He wrote a dissertation under
efforts on cognition and rationality. The neoclassical perspective the title of Criminal
Sociology that emphasized on the relationship

advocates that lifestyles affect basically both the volume and kind between criminal
anthropology and criminal law was emphasized

of offense in any community , for this reason the jeopardy

of potential victimization are likely increased with the existence

of those lifestyles . In fine, the contributions of neoclassical

perspective to criminology and penal sciences can be summarized

as the focus on the penal law and adoption of a legal definition of

crime, punishment should fit the crime rather than the criminal,

adoption of the free will doctrine based on an assumption of

similarity of criminals with other people, and concerning about

the uniformity of laws and punishments without explaining the

criminal behavior .

a. Classification of Criminals: In the light of his studies Ferri

advocated the following classification of criminals.

i.The born or instinctive criminals, those who from their birth,

through defective heredity, possessed a reduced resistance to

criminal stimuli and also an evident and valuable tendency.

ii. The insane criminals, those who suffered identified mental

diseases or neuro psychopathic problems that make them

clinically metal ailments.

On the same context, the neoclassical approach of criminology

criticized for many reasons, including inadequacy of

iii. The passional criminals, those who, trough passion, chronic

mental disease or emotion, may commit an offence when

excited.

Conclusion
about criminality to an analytic approach of studying criminals. The classification of
criminal types made by Ferri helped in understanding the problem of crime and
punishment, and was visualized as the cornerstone of the modern penal process, as it
enabled prosecutors to establish “a causal link between the defendant and the criminal act,
the chief matter of dispute at trial should become, “To what anthropological category does
the

accused belong?”.

The philosophy of punishment was based on a religious or

spiritual nature, but this basis had changed by the classical school

in the 18th century and the positivist school in the 19th century.

The classical school is founded by Cesare Beccaria, who came,

in his book Crimes and Punishment, with the idea says that laws

should be designed to preserve public safety and order, not to

avenge crime. On the same context, Jeremy Bentham advocated

the principle of utility and hedonism. The Legacy of this school

is that all global legal systems adopted the principles of classical

school, such as freedom from cruel and unusual punishment,

the right to a speedy trial, as freedom from cruel and unusual

punishment, the right to a speedy trial, the prohibition of ex post

facto laws, the right to confront one’s accusers, and equality under

law, contained in the Bill of Rights and other documents at the

heart of Western legal systems today.

b. Views on punishment: Enrico Ferri began as an apprentice

of Lombroso, but later recognized a sociological basis for his

approach. In general, the Positive School refused the

principle of “nulla poena sine leg” no punishment without a law. In contrary to classical
approach, the positive approach advocated that the punishment must fit the criminal rather
than the crime, as the treatment of criminals must be individualized and the society to be
protected from those criminals. Ferri emphasized that each criminal would receive different
types of treatments on individual basis because the penalty itself aims to satisfy psychological
and sociological needs, and therefore the purpose of punishment is the criminal, not the
crime. For this reason, he believed in the efficacy of penal sanctions rather

than force, simply because penalty should combat physical,

social and psychological factors of crime”. Ferri advocated that the penal sanction should
strike the roots of human criminality, and emphasized on social welfare and social
defense because the ultimate goal of criminal justice to protect the society against criminals.
On this context, he necessitated applying of “penal colonies, indeterminate sentences,
hospitals, scientifically trained judges and the abolition of juries and The Positive school
of the 19th century aimed to apply the scientific methods to social life. The philosophy of
this school is based on an assumption says that the biological, psychological, or social
determinants are behind criminal behavior. It is found that there are some strong points of
relationship between the Classical and Positivist School, especially in the thought of
Bentham, who advocated the internal and external constraints on free will, and rationality
by which he appears as classical and positivist criminologist. The legacy of the positive school
was the shift from the armchair philosophizing about human behavior to utilizing the concepts
and methods of science and from crime and penology to the criminal. Comment [durrezahid1]: