Meaning of penology

Two teenagers are caught stealing phones outside a college in Andheri. One is sent home with a warning, the other spends six months in jail. Nobody thinks the second boy's theft was six months worse. The difference lies in what the law is trying to achieve when it punishes, and in which tools it reaches for. Studying those aims and tools is what penology means.

In two minutes

Penology is the part of criminology that studies why society punishes, what forms of punishment and treatment it uses, and whether they work: it covers the aims of punishment, sentencing, prisons, probation, parole and the rehabilitation of offenders.

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