The Theory of Punishment and the Practice of Criminal Justice

Penal studies in contemporary Poland are dominated by dogmatic analysis. Penology, understood as an interdisciplinary area of research on criminal punishment and other legal and social reactions to acts prohibited under the threat of punishment, does not belong to dynamically developing fields of legal studies. An existing knowledge gap encourages some reflection on the theory of punishment and its impact on practice of criminal justice. Over the centuries, theories of punishment have mainly been debated by philosophers of law. In recent decades, most discussions concerning the theory of punishment have taken place between supporters of consequentialism and retributivism. However, the impact of these discussions on practice is limited. Issues most important to practitioners, such as the question of how much punishment should be imposed on a given offender, are frequently not found to be so important by penal philosophers. Numerous recent reforms of criminal justice systems in the United States and European countries do not fit into any normative framework because they are populist in nature and aim to achieve mainly political goals. As a result, sentencing in the United States is still criticized for being “unprincipled.” In Europe, establishing common sentencing principles for all Council of Europe countries has turned out to be difficult owing to their diverse legal traditions and sentencing practices. More interdisciplinary discussion and research that takes into account both the theoretical and practical problems of punishment are necessary in order to ensure an appropriate normative framework for criminal justice systems.