Skip to content
Theory paper

Criminology and Penology

Examined on Criminology and penology — no governing enactment, Police Act 1861, Prisons Act 1894, Probation of Offenders Act 1958, Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 — repealed. This paper is examined on theory, evidence and penal policy rather than on an Act. Where a proposition needs a provision, the statute is cited below and quoted directly.

This page is the map of the paper: every syllabus unit, the leading cases with full summaries, and the exam questions the paper actually sets.

Units

  1. Unit 1 · Nature and Scope of Criminology, and its Schools — Module I — the legal definition of crime and its five conditions; the changing concept of crime; the social viewpoint, and why the law looks backward while society looks forward; the forward-looking programme and the four objections to it; intent as no index of dangerousness; the relation between criminology, penology and criminal law; whether criminology is a science; and the schools of criminology
  2. Unit 2 · The Causes of Criminal Behaviour, and the Classification of Criminals — Module II — what a theory of crime causation must do: differentiate, and hold one level of analysis; situational and historical explanations, opportunity and the person-situation complex; Durkheim on mechanical and organic societies, why crime is normal, and anomie; Sutherland’s differential association; the multiple-factor approach and Sutherland’s objection to it; and the classification of criminals
  3. Unit 3 · The Police, Penology and the Theories of Punishment — Module III — the police under the Police Act 1861: constitution, superintendence, administration and the duties in s. 23; the relation between police and prosecution; penology; and the theories of punishment read on Ashworth’s behavioural and political premises — desert, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation and restorative theories; kinds of punishment and capital punishment
  4. Unit 4 · Correction of Offenders, Probation, Parole and Victimology — Module IV — the need for reformation and the efficacy of imprisonment; the Prisons Act 1894; probation, its history and the Probation of Offenders Act 1958, distinguished from a suspended sentence; parole and furlough; and victimology — its scope, its history, and the victim in the Indian criminal justice system

Leading cases in this paper

Exam questions

Where it sits

Statutes