REFLECTIONS ON PENOLOGY

Abstract

This article points to the recent controversy surrounding the devaluation of prison rehabilitation as an effective correctional approach, notes the varied reactions of criminologists to this dilemma, and suggests that contemporary penal planning should be calculated on the basis o fnot only what should be, but also on what historical experience suggests is attainable. In approaching the "lessons" of penal history, the authors state that three general stages of development have characterized the evolution of penology: the Age of Retribution, the Age of the Penitentiary, and the modern Age of Corrections. The authors further suggest that each succeeding stage has emerged as a result of deficiencies in its predecessor, that the passage of time has not necessarily brought improvement, and that criminological thought has been hampered. to some extent, by an imbalance between social and legal theory since the appearance of the late 18th-centugv classicists. Finally, the authors summarize the tenets of positive ...