HISTORY OF

MODERN PENOLOGY
CG LTJG JAHZEEL L ABION
CG ENS JEFFERSON REY T ABABA
Introduction (Background)
PENOLOGY - The word "penology" is derived from the Latin words
"Pena" meaning "punishment" and "logos" meaning "study."
Therefore, penology is the study of punishment of crimes.
 MODERN PENOLOGY

1. Rehabilitation of Offenders.
2. Offenders are seen as individuals who can be rehabilitated and reintegrated to the
society.
 HISTORY
Modern penology dates from the publication of Cesare Beccaria’s pamphlet on 
Crimes and Punishments in 1764. This represented a school of doctrine, born of the new
humanitarian impulse of the 18th century, with which Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire,
and Montesquieu in France and Jeremy Bentham in England were associated. This, which
came afterwards to be known as the classical school, assumed every criminal act to be a
deliberate choice determined by a calculation of the prospective pleasures and pains of
the act contemplated. All that was needed to overcome the criminal purpose was to
provide for each and every crime a penalty adequate to overbalance its assumed
advantages. Excessive penalties, such as death, were unnecessary and therefore unjust.
 Intellectual History
The progress of penology in modern times that its advance has been a product of
general growth of scientific knowledge concerning the individual and his social
relationships. It has shown a tendency to lag behind certain other phases of general
intellectual progress, this has been because it is connected closely with both ethical
and metaphysical assumptions and legal concepts and processes which inevitably
retard the free and natural progress of thought and procedure.

The creation of Modern Penology was primarily concerned with the correct

identification, classification, and management of groups categorized according to
perceived dangerousness. Gone were the days that penology focuses on establishing
guilt and figuring out appropriate punishment. The Modern Penology focuses on
managing the risk of crime using statistics and analysis.
CONTENDING SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
 Classical School

This adheres to the “doctrine of psychological hedonism” or “free will”. As a result of his/her
calculations, the individual regulates his conduct based on the pleasures and pains he
anticipates. Therefore, this School agrees that punishing criminals is appropriate.
Neo-Classical School
The neoclassical school of the revolutionary period in France, which modified Beccaria’s
rigorous doctrine by insisting on the recognition of varying degrees of moral, and therefore of
legal, responsibility, as in the case of children and the insane, as well as of mitigating
 circumstances in general. The doctrine of the “individualization of punishment” That is to say, of
the punishment of the individual rather than of the crime committed by him, which is of
commanding importance in present-day penology—is only a development of this fundamental
principle of the neoclassical school.

In General, the Classical doctrine is correct, but some details should be modified. The difference
between pleasure and pain cannot be calculated by children and lunatics, so they should not be
punished as criminals.
Positivist or Italian School
The positive school pursued the positive methods of modern science. Its fundamental doctrine
was that the criminal was doomed by his inherited traits to a criminal career and was therefore
a wholly irresponsible actor. Society must, of course, protect itself against him, but to punish
him as if he were a free moral agent was as irrational as it was unethical.

In general, the criminal behavior is viewed as a natural phenomenon by the School that denied
individual responsibility and reflected non-punitive responses to crimes. Instead of punishing
criminals, the treatment programs should be used to treat sick individuals.
PERSONALITIES IN MODERN PENOLOGY
 PERSONALITIES IN MODERN PENOLOGY
Cesare Beccaria

Beccaria emphasized individual dignity within the criminal

justice system. He stood against the use of torture and capital
punishment. Beccaria's ideas are especially remarkable
considering the era in which they appeared when conventional
wisdom based crime prevention on fear and punishment on the
"eye for an eye" principle. He was acknowledged as one of
penology’s great reformers.

Beccaria's ideas are especially remarkable considering the era

in which they appeared when conventional wisdom based
crime prevention on fear and punishment on the "eye for an
eye" principle.
 PERSONALITIES IN MODERN PENOLOGY

Alexander Maconochie
In 1840, Maconochie became the Governor of Norfolk
Island, a prison island where convicts were treated with
severe brutality and were seen as lost causes. Upon
reaching the island, Maconochie immediately instituted
policies that restored dignity to prisoners, achieving
remarkable success in prisoner rehabilitation. These
policies were well in advance of their time and
Maconochie was politically undermined. His ideas would
be largely ignored and forgotten, only to be readopted as
the basis of modern penal systems over a century later in
the mid- to late 20th century.
 PERSONALITIES IN MODERN PENOLOGY
John Howard
He advocated a system of state-controlled
prisons in which the regime was tough, but the
environment healthy.

He advocated a regime of solitary confinement,

hard labour and religious instruction. The
objective of imprisonment, he believed, was
reform and rehabilitation, not just punishment.
PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEWS IN MODERN PENOLOGY

Considered penology as an effective means to change behavior. It may cause a

person to engage in behavior that is incompatible with the undesirable behavior
and this incompatibility may lead to a fear response which the person then learns to
avoid. Thus, current research on punishment has wide implications for the criminal
justice system.
 SCIENTIFIC VIEWS IN MODERN PENOLOGY

Rehabilitative techniques are largely effective when disciplinary and custodial

conditions are relaxed while keeping the individual’s personality in mind. Prison
inmates may receive scientific corrective treatment from therapeutic specialists.
Instead of punishing inmates, the prison environment should correct them. This
pertains to the prevention and rehabilitation of crime using scientific principles and
methods.
 ECONOMIC VIEWS IN MODERN PENOLOGY

Imprisonment wastes human force. When the manpower of a society changes to

cost forces, the society losses its resources. The active prisoners are usually 20 to 50
years old and they will spend their best effective time in jail. The costs of prison are
irrevocable. Although they could be directly and indirectly provisioned to increase
the security level and it consequently would result in social and economical
productivity and prosperity. But round–the–clock maintenance costs of each system
are very high all around the world; most of it is not regenerated, so the resources
are wasted.