Institution Of Punishment Research Articles

Environmental crime and influence of socio-economic factors on the development of punishment system

The institution of criminal punishment is a part of the statelegal mechanism of coercive influence on the population to stimulate lawabiding behavior and prevent law violation. The history of Russian criminal law contains more than a thousand years of experience in consolidating this institution of criminal law. At different stages of state development, the system of punishments and other measures of a criminal law nature had significant differences due to various socio-economic, political, historical and other factors. Structural analysis of punishment system of Russian state at different stages of its existence indicates that socio-economic factors affecting the state structure and state policy have a huge impact, both on the construction of punishment system and on its direct implementation. In particular, technological development of society, development of transport system, the need for cheap labor during construction, the general level of development of social relations led to the inclusion of new types of punishments in the legislation or changes in those acting under specific socio-economic conditions (reference to remote settlements, use of forced labor prisoners during construction, etc.).

Kristeva vis-à-vis Hegel

This article reconstructs and compares Kristeva’s account of psychoanalytic interpretation as a practice of forgiveness with Hegel’s account of the origin of Absolute Knowing in the forgiveness constitutive of mutual recognition. An emphasis on homologies between the memory-work of Kristevan psychoanalysis and the recollective process of Hegelian Absolute Knowing elicits deeper affinities between Kristeva and Hegel than have previously been supposed. Both Kristevan and Hegelian forgiveness operate as the healing of an originary guilt, achieved through the verbal confession and examination of the confessor’s particular biographical and historical past, negating and raising up—sublating or sublimating—the contradictions of consciousness. Psychoanalysis and Absolute Knowing both enact in the present the reconciliation which religion perpetually defers to an unspecified future. While not replacing the institution of legal punishment, Kristevan and Hegelian forgiveness qua personal and social renewal and rebirth provide for the possibility of radical political transformation.

The power of law and the word of God: on the punishment, prevention of of-fences and sins in law and religion

The article examines in comparative terms the institution of punishment in law and religion and ways to prevent deviations from legal prescriptions and church canons. The author justifies the differences in the conceptual apparatus of these social phenomena, the derivative of philosophical and legal concepts of punishment from religious dogmas and the duality of the latter, notes the importance of taking into account the religious component in the legal consciousness for the full use of the potential of legal regulation and public administration, the importance of communication of positive and canon law for establishing a creative human being. The thesis "law comes into force when religious arguments are spent" determines the role of religious punishments as an instrument of canonical repentance and the healing of lost souls. The long process of secularization has contributed to an objective increase in contradictions in human behavior, so the classification of methods of correction implies proportionality of penalties to committed offenses and sinful acts. In a comparative way, the drivers of crime and sin are revealed, concrete ways of preventing them are proposed, and it is concluded that the effectiveness of the educational and coordinating functions of law and religion depends on the practical implementation of the criteria of a decent life and social control.

Институт наказания в структуре дисциплинарного общества: попытка преодоления разграничения микро-макроуровней анализа социальных процессов

Институт наказания в структуре дисциплинарного общества: попытка преодоления разграничения микро-макроуровней анализа социальных процессов

Naturalistic operant responses in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) and its response to outcome manipulation and serotonergic intervention.

Investigating the motivational triggers underlying naturalistic compulsive-like behavior is generally regarded as challenging. To this extent, the current study aimed to establish a proof-of-concept for future investigation by probing unconditioned and naturalistic operant responses aimed at obtaining nesting material by normal (NNB) and large (LNB) nest building deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii). LNB mice and NNB controls were individually placed in cages equipped with a lever-operated nesting material (cotton rope) dispenser and allowed to become accustomed to the response (lever press)-outcome (obtaining cotton rope) contingency over seven nights. Subsequently, the contingency was manipulated by withdrawing the nesting material (experiment 1) or punishing the lever-press response with a mild electrical foot shock (experiment 2). Mice were then treated for 28 days with escitalopram (50 mg/kg/d) and retested. Our results indicate that (1) LNB mice generally made more operant responses compared to NNB controls, (2) withdrawal of nesting material and institution of punishment bolstered responding in LNB but not NNB mice and (3) escitalopram treatment tended to reduce increased responding in LNB mice following experimental manipulation, while normalizing the total number of lever-press counts in the LNB cohort. Therefore, LNB seems to diverge from NNB, not only as a spontaneous phenotype, but also in terms of the motivation to obtain nesting material, despite demotivating feedback. That such differences were abrogated by chronic escitalopram intervention, indicates that the uniquely motivated operant interactions displayed by LNB mice, may be founded upon serotonergic mechanisms, a finding in line with the neurobiological theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Discussion on the results of the article of V.V. Khilyuta «Punishment and criminal impact: finding the best model for countering crime»

In the article Punishment and criminal impact: finding the best model for countering crime V.V. Khilyuta points to the fact that the vector of development of criminal-legal relations in the course of the formation of a new era of society reveals the need for analysis and search for ways to transition to new forms of influence on the person for the purpose of prevention of commission of crimes. The author emphasizes the crisis of the institution of punishment. Proposes to revise the doctrine of punishment with cultural, spiritual and moral aspects, and with a bias towards prevention in the form of early application of criminal measures of influence on the person. According to V.V. Khilyuta, only a radical change in the existing socio-economic and cultural attitudes of society and the departure from the principle of equality of all before the law in the direction of differentiation of punishment and persons committing an illegal act, taking into account their social status, can lead to qualitative transformations of criminal legislation as a whole. He predicts the transition from the concept of punishment as retribution for the crime to the means of preventive criminal legal impact.
 This article is devoted to a discussion of the analysis of aspects of criminal law related to institution of punishment, on the basis of acquaintance with the content of article V.V. Khilyuta. There are counter-arguments that call into question the appropriateness of the proposed solutions by him.

Punishment and criminal impact: finding the best model for countering crime

The article deals with the essence of punishment and criminal impact in modern criminal law. Vectors of development of the institution of punishment in the era of formation of digital society are defined. The author considers in detail the current trends of transition from punishment to criminal law impact, justifies the reasons for such transformation and possible consequences.
 The aim of the study is to identify the place of punishment and criminal measures in the structure of criminal law and the prospects for their further improvement, taking into account the shift of scientific paradigm and the formation of a new digital age. Objectives of the study: on the basis of identification signs of punishment and criminal law action, to show the causes of the crisis of the institution of punishment in criminal law and the existing contradictions in the resolution of criminal law conflicts.
 The study used traditional methods of socio-legal and formal-dogmatic analysis: documentary, historical, legal, analytical, systemic and logical.
 According to the results of the study, it is proposed to revise the teaching of punishment from cultural and spiritual and moral aspects. Punishment continues today to be the only reasonable way to influence crime, despite the fact that globalization brings to the fore the reformatting of the principles of criminal law and the departure from the principle of equality of all before the law towards differentiation of the perpetrators of the wrongful act, taking into account their social status. Without a fundamental change in the existing approaches to the concept of crime and criminal responsibility, a shift in emphasis from punishment to criminal law impact would not be meaningful. Punishment is directly proportional to the culture of society in a particular historical period and to the spiritual, economic and political values that prevail in society. Therefore, the concept of punishment cannot be changed automatically, in isolation from socio-economic transformations and cultural attitudes of society.

О влиянии либеральных и консервативных правовых концепций на институт воинских наказаний в период утверждения капитализма в России

О влиянии либеральных и консервативных правовых концепций на институт воинских наказаний в период утверждения капитализма в России

About individual aspects of the development of the institution of punishment in the criminal code of RSFSR 1960

The article analyzes the conceptual aspects of the development of the institution of criminal punishment established by the Criminal code of the RSFSR in 1960 as a criminal act of the Soviet state, which formulated a new content of the institution of punishment based on the principles of Soviet law. Fixing in the Criminal code of the RSFSR of 1960 of punishment is a consequence of final refusal of measures of social protection in the Soviet criminal law. Punishment was defined not only as punishment for the committed crime, but also pursued the purposes of correction and re-education of convicts in the spirit of honest attitude to work, accurate execution of laws, respect for the rules of socialist community, as well as prevention of committing new crimes by both convicts and other persons. In the criminal code of the RSFSR was established a systematic list of types of criminal penalties; defined the rules of sentencing and release from punishment. This systematization of the measures of criminal repression used by the Soviet state was carried out in the form of outlining the types of punishments from the most severe to the milder, some of which were borrowed from other branches of law.

CERTAIN PROBLEMS OF SENTENCING AND APPLICATION OF OTHER MEASURES OF A CRIMINAL-LEGAL NATURE UNDER THE RUSSIAN LEGISLATION

The institution of punishment and other measures of a criminal law nature is important in the development of criminology and criminal law. However, in the scientific literature to date there is no single understanding of individual legal structures, which, of course, affects the formation of the core of the concept of punishment. The article discusses the problems of the appointment and application of other measures of a criminal law nature. Based on the analysis of scientific works of specialists in this field, the author draws conclusions that allow optimizing the categorical apparatus used in law enforcement. A new approach is given to the disclosure of the term “punishment”, the position is justified, according to which the institution of punishment can only be studied through the prism of correlation with criminal law measures. The article discloses the problems of differentiation of the generic and species characteristics of criminal law measures as measures of state coercion, expressed in restrictions or deprivation of the rights and freedoms of a person who actually committed a socially dangerous act, provided for by the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in order to prevent its re-commission. The author constructs a complex of criminal legal measures, which include compulsory medical measures, confiscation of property, compulsory measures of educational influence, restrictions applied to those conditionally released from punishment. Each element of the presented system is revealed in the heuristic plane.

Individual, Dictator, and Democratic punishment in public good games with perfect and imperfect observability

In the context of repeated public good contribution games, we experimentally compare the institution of democratic punishment, where members of a group decide by majority voting whether to inflict punishment on another member, with individual peer-to-peer and dictatorial punishment institutions. Democratic punishment leads to more cooperation and higher average payoffs, both under perfect and imperfect monitoring of contributions. A comparison with dictatorial punishment suggests that the effect relative to traditional peer-to-peer punishment primarily works by curbing anti-social punishment and thereby establishing a closer connection between a member's contribution decision and whether subsequently being punished by others.

Understanding of Punishment in the Philosophical, Political and Legal Doctrines of Ancient China

Based on the analysis of the philosophical, political and legal doctrines of Ancient China – Taoism, Confucianism, Mo-tze’s guidelines, Mo-dze’s teachings, Legist and Orthodox Confucianism – the authors have demonstrated specific features of understanding the essence of punishment in the ancient Chinese society. The factors that influenced the establishment and development of the institution of punishment in China have been revealed. It has been noted that the specificity of the criminal legislation of the Ancient China was the fact that the reality of the threat to the current government was foremost taken into account while determining the punishment. The most dangerous were considered acts that threatened the ruler, less dangerous that threatened society. Therefore, all punishments can be divided into those that threatened the authority of government, and those that did not directly affect the interests of the ruler. The basic principles of implementing punishments have been defined.
 The authors have concluded that the philosophical teachings of Ancient China had significant differences from many political issues, but were similar in understanding the role and purpose of punishment. For the most part, the use of punishment was united into a single system with rewards, which had one purpose: to centralize and strengthen the ruler’s power, to liquidate his political opponents, and to curb the disobedience of the people in all its manifestations. Consequently, punishment was considered as one of the methods of managing a society. It has been noted that there was no understanding about the law in the ancient world. Punishment did not become a separate institution. There was a gradual formation of the institution of punishment. Religion and the morale of those times greatly influenced on that process.

Институт наказания в российском уголовном праве: сущность, история становления

The problems associated with the functioning of the institution of punishment in the criminal law of the Russian Federation at the present stage require careful research, legal regulation and scientific justification in order not only to study the experience of previous historical aspects of the implementation of this phenomenon, but to realize its main purpose - to bring the perpetrators to justice, to deserved punishment, observing the requirements of fair retribution. Legislative acts of the pre-revolutionary era did not contain the concept of punishment, but the list of punishment types was quite wide. The process of theoretical normative provisions and generalization of judicial practice of criminal law formation resulted in the concept of punishment as a measure of coercion applied by the state on the basis of a court sentence and on the basis of the law to persons found guilty of a criminal act and containing an expression of a negative assessment of criminal activity. At the present time, taking into account the historical conditions, observing multidirectional trends in order to improve the criminal punishment system development efficiency, it is necessary to take into account the set of new scientific achievements in this field, judicial practice and many other factors that will also help the courts to adequately apply the existing arsenal of penalties. The criminal law Institute of punishment should solve the leading task, the implementation of the criminal responsibility justice, expressed in the imposition of punishment corresponding to the nature and degree of social danger of the committed act, as well as the personality of the perpetrator and objectively meeting the goals established by law. In this case, it acts as a powerful, deterrent, preventive factor.

Rescuing ‘defenseless selves’: tasking the Nigeria Criminal Justice System on capital punishment in the 21st century

Nigeria will still make effective use of capital punishment in the 21st century, at least to satisfy the principle of double effect. Better capital punishment than the violence of capital crime. More than the better of two evils, this paper argued that the death penalty is crucial for those facing trails for capital crimes in Nigeria achieving authenticity in Soren Kierkegaard’s view. Such criminals are among the ‘defenseless selves’, those whose individuality has been lost due to external influences. The institution of capital punishment by a criminal justice system that does not jeopardize the ingredients of justice, especially, proper apprehension suspected criminals, competent representation of the prosecuted, prompt prosecution and execution, of those found guilty, could rescue condemned criminals and enable them become ‘individuals’ or achieve authenticity. Moreover, it will reduce the spate of capital crime in the county, as well as economic loss due to amnesty bargains between governments and suspected criminals or due to ransom being paid kidnappers.Thus, even as speculations on abolition of capital punishment continues, the Nigerian legal profession should encourage competent and adequate representation of criminals facing the death sentence for the country to realize more through capital punishment.Keywords: ‘Defenseless Selves’, Criminal Justice System, Capital Crime, CapitalPunishment

Criminal Law, Parental Authority, and the State

In the recently published collection, Criminal Law and the Authority of the State, two contributions allude to an analogy with parental authority as a means to a better understanding of the institution of criminal punishment, but reach different conclusions. Malcolm Thorburn uses the parental authority analogy to justify the institution of state punishment as an assertion of robust authority over offenders. Antje du Bois-Pedain uses the same analogy to advocate the idea of punishment as an inclusionary practice, designed to reintegrate offenders into society. I argue that Thorburn’s theory of robust authority is inconsistent if not self-contradictory when it tries to assume a liberal posture, and that du Bois-Pedain’s reintegrative model provides a better account of the justification and objectives of state punishment.

Criminal Law, Parental Authority, and the State

In the recently published collection, Criminal Law and the Authority of the State, two contributions allude to an analogy with parental authority as a means to a better understanding of the institution of criminal punishment, but reach different conclusions. Malcolm Thorburn uses the parental analogy to justify the institution of state punishment as an assertion of robust authority over offenders. Antje du Bois-Pedain uses the same analogy to advocate the idea of punishment as an inclusionary practice, designed to reintegrate offenders into society. I argue that the theory of robust authority is inconsistent if not self-contradictory when it tries to assume a liberal posture, and that the reintegrative model provides a better account of the justification and objectives of state punishment.

Taking Deterrence Seriously: The Wide-Scope Deterrence Theory of Punishment

A deterrence theory of punishment holds that the institution of criminal punishment is morally justified because it serves to deter crime. Because the fear of external sanction is an important incentive in crime deterrence, the deterrence theory is often associated with the idea of severe, disproportionate punishment. An objection to this theory holds that hope of escape renders even the severest punishment inapt and irrelevant.This article revisits the concept of deterrence and defend a more plausible deterrence theory of punishment—the wide-scope deterrence theory. The wide-scope theory holds that we must make the best use of all the deterrence tools available, including both external and internal sanctions. Drawing on insights from the early Confucian tradition, the article develops a deep deterrence theory, which holds that the most important deterrence tool involves internal, not external, sanction. It describes how internal sanctions deter potential offenses and why relevant policies need not conflict with liberalism’s respect for neutrality.

The evolution of the goals and conditions of the execution of the penalty of deprivation of liberty from the Middle Ages to the present day

The functions of prisons in old Poland, their role and organization changed along with the evolution of views on the objectives of the institution of punishment in the system of criminal law. The picture will be completely different if the punishment is to have a main rehabilitation effect, and another when the basic premise of the penal policy is the principle of deterrence, not the moral improvement of the offender (it was in Poland until the 18th century). The penalty of deprivation of liberty could be carried out in five different ways. The choice of prison was primarily determined by the type of crime committed, but also the state of the convict was very important. The first, as early as the 12th-13th centuries are prisons, in which the population of lower states, ie townsmen, and peasants, were imprisoned. Initially, they play only a preventive role. In the Middle Ages, an upper tower was also developed, mainly applied to the nobility, it was an institution in which convicted in decent, even home conditions performed his penance. In the modern era, ie in the first half of the 16th century, a lower tower is being established, often not so much a place of imprisonment, but a place of slow death. Significant changes in the character and function of penitentiary institutions were brought by the 18th century, which was connected with the enlightenment flowing into the Republic of Poland, under which the punishment was also to be a means of improvement and rehabilitation, and not only revenge. The practice of imprisoning people in the tower, which was only a place of penance, deprived of any rehabilitation factors, slowly disappears, while prison comes to the fore. Here, the marshal prison should be pointed out, constituting a symbol of changes taking place, a modern facility in which the convict punished in humane conditions for those times, but above all, he was cared for his moral improvement, so that in the future he would not return to crime. The houses of improvement and forced labor houses started to play an extremely important role, the goal of which was to improve the prisoners through work and prayer.

CONTRATO, VIRTUDES E O PROBLEMA DA PUNIÇÃO

O objetivo desse artigo é investigar o problema da justificação da punição, a saber, como é possível justificar normativamente o dano intencional retributivo reprobatório infligido pelo Estado aos ofensores? Nossa estratégia será tentar conectar a função corretiva e os eventos de remorso, arrependimento e perdão do âmbito privado da punição com o domínio público, de forma a questionar a correção normativa da punição legal. Posteriormente, veremos como o contratualismo pode justificar a instituição da punição de uma forma mais eficiente e como a ética das virtudes pode ser um atrativo modelo quando pensamos em quem punir e o quanto. Por fim, defenderemos que uma teoria moral mista seria desejável para melhor resolver os complexos problemas da justificação da punição.

Of Transport and Transportation

This essay shows how the institution of punishment by criminal transportation was entangled with the aesthetics of sublime transport introduced into English literary parlance by Boileau’s 1674 translation of Longinus’ Peri Hypsous, which would later become, in English, On the Sublime. Through readings of two early-eighteenth-century literary touchstones in the narration of criminal transportation—Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1722), and John Gay’s Polly (1729)—the essay argues that the tension between transport and transportation in these texts reveals emerging literary-critical anxieties about “modernity” and the perceived arrival of contemporary economic limitations on the aesthetic and ethical features of the sublime. Within early-eighteenth-century literary engagements with transportation emerge possibilities of a resistance to or a reappropriation of this commodification through the transporting capacities of literary form.