NOTES ON PENOLOGY
Compiled by: JRF
PENOLOGY
✓ The study of punishment for crime or of criminal offenders. It includes the study of control and
prevention of crime through punishment of criminal offenders.
✓ The term is derived from the Latin word "POENA" which means Pain or Suffering.
✓ Penology is otherwise known as Penal Science.
✓ It is actually a division of criminology that deals with prison management and the treatment of
offenders and concerned itself with the philosophy and practice of society in its effort to repress
criminal activities.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PENOLOGY
➢ The Classical School - it maintains the "doctrine of psychological hedonism" or "free will". That the
individual calculates pleasures and pains in advance of action and regulates his conduct by the result
of his calculations.
➢ The Neo-Classical School - it maintained that while the classical doctrine is correct in general, it should
be modified in certain details. Since children and lunatics cannot calculate the differences of pleasures
from pain, they should not be regarded as criminals; hence they should be free from punishment.
➢ The positivist/Italian School - the school that denied individual responsibility and reflected non-
punitive reactions to crime and criminality. It adheres that crimes, as any other act, is natural
phenomenon. Criminals are considered as sick individuals who need to be treated treatment programs
rather than punitive action against them.
PRINCIPAL AIMS OF PENOLOGY
✓ To bring light the ethical barriers of punishment, along with the motives and purposes of society
inflicting it.
✓ To make comparative study of penal laws and procedures through history between nations.
✓ To evaluate the social consequences of the policies enforced at given time.
PENAL MANAGEMENT
➢ Refers to the manner or practice of managing or controlling places of confinement as in jails or prisons.
CORRECTION
➢ A branch of the Criminal Justice System concerned with the custody, supervision and rehabilitation of
criminal offenders.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF CORRECTIONS
➢ Institutional Corrections - deals with jails, prisons, and colonies where a convict is going to serve his
sentence.
➢ Non - Institutional Corrections - deals with service of sentence of a convict outside an institution. It
is also known as a community-based treatment.
CORRECTION AS A PROCESS
➢ Refers to the reorientation of the criminal offender to prevent him or her from repeating his deviant or
delinquent actions without the necessity of taking punitive actions but rather the introduction of
individual measures of reformation.
CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION
, CORRECTION AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
The Criminal Justice System is the machinery of any government in the control and prevention of
crimes and criminality. It is composed of the pillars of justice such as: the Law Enforcement pillar (Police),
the Prosecution pillar, the Court pillar, the correction pillar, and the community pillar.
Correction as one of the pillars of the criminal justice system is considered as the weakest pillar.
This is because of its failure to deter individuals in committing crimes as well as the reformation of inmates.
This is an evident in the increasing number of inmates in jails or prisons. Hence, the need for prison
management to rehabilitate inmates and transform them to become law-abiding citizens after their release
is necessary.
Correction is the fourth pillar of the criminal justice system. The pillar takes over once the accused,
after having been found guilty, is meted out the penalty for the crime he committed. He can apply for
probation, or he could be turned over to a non-institutional or institutional agency or facility for custodial
treatment and rehabilitation. The offender could avail of the benefits of parole or executive clemency once
he has served the minimum period of his sentence
When the penalty is imprisonment, the sentence is carried out either in the municipal, provincial,
or national penitentiary depending on the length of the sentence meted out.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CORRECTIONS
THE PRIMITIVE SOCIETY
✓ In the beginning of civilization, acts are characterized by behavioral controls categorized as: forbidden
acts, accepted acts, and those acts that are encouraged.
✓ Crimes, violence, rebellious acts, and other acts, which are expressly prohibited by the society fall as
forbidden acts.
✓ Accepted acts are those that can be beneficial to the welfare of the society such as early traditions and
practices, folkways, norms, those that are controlled by social rules, and laws.
✓ Encourage acts are anything approved by the majority which is believed to be beneficial to the
common good. These things include marrying; having children, crop production, growing food, etc...
EARLY CODES
➢ History shows that there are three main legal systems in the world, which has been accepted to and
adopted by all countries aside from those that produced them. In their chronological order they are the;
✓ Roman
✓ Mohammedan or Arabic and;
✓ Anglo-American laws.
➢ Among the three, it was the Roman law that has the most lasting and the most prevailing influence. The
private Roman law (Which include Criminal law) especially has offered the most adequate basic
concepts which sharply define, in concise and inconsistent terminology, mature rules in a complete
system, logical and firm, tempered with high sense of equity.
Code of Ur - Nammu
▪ Code of Ur- Nammu (2100-2050 BCE) - Oldest Code known to man institutes fines of monetary
compensation for bodily damage, as opposed to the later lex talionis ('eye for an eye) principle of
Babylonian law; however, murder, robbery, adultery and rape were capital offenses. Provides the first
caste system
Code of Eshunna
▪ Code of Eshunna (ca 1930 BC) - a Sumerian code which forbid accepting money or objects "from the
hands of a slave" or making loans (that is, any transactions with a slave). Moneylenders are likewise
forbidden from taking hostages, whether free men or slaves.
Compiled by: JRF
PENOLOGY
✓ The study of punishment for crime or of criminal offenders. It includes the study of control and
prevention of crime through punishment of criminal offenders.
✓ The term is derived from the Latin word "POENA" which means Pain or Suffering.
✓ Penology is otherwise known as Penal Science.
✓ It is actually a division of criminology that deals with prison management and the treatment of
offenders and concerned itself with the philosophy and practice of society in its effort to repress
criminal activities.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PENOLOGY
➢ The Classical School - it maintains the "doctrine of psychological hedonism" or "free will". That the
individual calculates pleasures and pains in advance of action and regulates his conduct by the result
of his calculations.
➢ The Neo-Classical School - it maintained that while the classical doctrine is correct in general, it should
be modified in certain details. Since children and lunatics cannot calculate the differences of pleasures
from pain, they should not be regarded as criminals; hence they should be free from punishment.
➢ The positivist/Italian School - the school that denied individual responsibility and reflected non-
punitive reactions to crime and criminality. It adheres that crimes, as any other act, is natural
phenomenon. Criminals are considered as sick individuals who need to be treated treatment programs
rather than punitive action against them.
PRINCIPAL AIMS OF PENOLOGY
✓ To bring light the ethical barriers of punishment, along with the motives and purposes of society
inflicting it.
✓ To make comparative study of penal laws and procedures through history between nations.
✓ To evaluate the social consequences of the policies enforced at given time.
PENAL MANAGEMENT
➢ Refers to the manner or practice of managing or controlling places of confinement as in jails or prisons.
CORRECTION
➢ A branch of the Criminal Justice System concerned with the custody, supervision and rehabilitation of
criminal offenders.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF CORRECTIONS
➢ Institutional Corrections - deals with jails, prisons, and colonies where a convict is going to serve his
sentence.
➢ Non - Institutional Corrections - deals with service of sentence of a convict outside an institution. It
is also known as a community-based treatment.
CORRECTION AS A PROCESS
➢ Refers to the reorientation of the criminal offender to prevent him or her from repeating his deviant or
delinquent actions without the necessity of taking punitive actions but rather the introduction of
individual measures of reformation.
CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION
, CORRECTION AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
The Criminal Justice System is the machinery of any government in the control and prevention of
crimes and criminality. It is composed of the pillars of justice such as: the Law Enforcement pillar (Police),
the Prosecution pillar, the Court pillar, the correction pillar, and the community pillar.
Correction as one of the pillars of the criminal justice system is considered as the weakest pillar.
This is because of its failure to deter individuals in committing crimes as well as the reformation of inmates.
This is an evident in the increasing number of inmates in jails or prisons. Hence, the need for prison
management to rehabilitate inmates and transform them to become law-abiding citizens after their release
is necessary.
Correction is the fourth pillar of the criminal justice system. The pillar takes over once the accused,
after having been found guilty, is meted out the penalty for the crime he committed. He can apply for
probation, or he could be turned over to a non-institutional or institutional agency or facility for custodial
treatment and rehabilitation. The offender could avail of the benefits of parole or executive clemency once
he has served the minimum period of his sentence
When the penalty is imprisonment, the sentence is carried out either in the municipal, provincial,
or national penitentiary depending on the length of the sentence meted out.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CORRECTIONS
THE PRIMITIVE SOCIETY
✓ In the beginning of civilization, acts are characterized by behavioral controls categorized as: forbidden
acts, accepted acts, and those acts that are encouraged.
✓ Crimes, violence, rebellious acts, and other acts, which are expressly prohibited by the society fall as
forbidden acts.
✓ Accepted acts are those that can be beneficial to the welfare of the society such as early traditions and
practices, folkways, norms, those that are controlled by social rules, and laws.
✓ Encourage acts are anything approved by the majority which is believed to be beneficial to the
common good. These things include marrying; having children, crop production, growing food, etc...
EARLY CODES
➢ History shows that there are three main legal systems in the world, which has been accepted to and
adopted by all countries aside from those that produced them. In their chronological order they are the;
✓ Roman
✓ Mohammedan or Arabic and;
✓ Anglo-American laws.
➢ Among the three, it was the Roman law that has the most lasting and the most prevailing influence. The
private Roman law (Which include Criminal law) especially has offered the most adequate basic
concepts which sharply define, in concise and inconsistent terminology, mature rules in a complete
system, logical and firm, tempered with high sense of equity.
Code of Ur - Nammu
▪ Code of Ur- Nammu (2100-2050 BCE) - Oldest Code known to man institutes fines of monetary
compensation for bodily damage, as opposed to the later lex talionis ('eye for an eye) principle of
Babylonian law; however, murder, robbery, adultery and rape were capital offenses. Provides the first
caste system
Code of Eshunna
▪ Code of Eshunna (ca 1930 BC) - a Sumerian code which forbid accepting money or objects "from the
hands of a slave" or making loans (that is, any transactions with a slave). Moneylenders are likewise
forbidden from taking hostages, whether free men or slaves.
