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CA 1 Midterm Finish

This document provides an overview of the history of punishment and various early forms of capital punishment. It discusses how the earliest forms of punishment were death, torture, and maiming. It then outlines some of the earliest legal codes from civilizations like Babylon, Rome, and Greece. Some key points made are that the death penalty has existed since ancient societies as a form of deterrence, and early methods were slow and painful like stoning, crucifixion, and being crushed or burned. The document also gives brief descriptions of specific capital punishment methods like sawing, garotting, and use of the guillotine.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
67 views

CA 1 Midterm Finish

This document provides an overview of the history of punishment and various early forms of capital punishment. It discusses how the earliest forms of punishment were death, torture, and maiming. It then outlines some of the earliest legal codes from civilizations like Babylon, Rome, and Greece. Some key points made are that the death penalty has existed since ancient societies as a form of deterrence, and early methods were slow and painful like stoning, crucifixion, and being crushed or burned. The document also gives brief descriptions of specific capital punishment methods like sawing, garotting, and use of the guillotine.

Uploaded by

clinkx drew
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INSTITUTIONAL

CORRECTION

GRAY, MAY
ANGELA L. 0
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

MODULE II
PUNISHMENT

Learning Activities

Lesson 1. History of Punishment

The earliest form of punishment was death, torture, maiming and banishment.
The jail was introduced in Medieval Europe as a place of confinement of persons
arrested and undergoing trial, and for those convicted of minor offenses such as
drunkenness, gambling and prostitution. Death, corporal punishment and banishment
were still the penalties for offenses which today are punishable by imprisonment. Later,
convicted offenders were chained to galleys to man the ships of war. England, France
and Spain used the transportation system of punishment by indenturing their convicts to
penal colonies where they served as slaves until they completed their service of
sentences.
Transportation of offenders to penal colonies was practiced principally by Europe
countries that had acquired distant colonies because of the need to import labor into
these colonies. England, more than any other imperialistic country in Europe, made
extensive use of transportation England first began transporting prisoners in 1718, by
sending her convicts to American Colonies until the American revolution. When the
colonies obtained their independence, England diverted her convicts to Australia and
New Zealand. England abandoned transportation of prisoners in the last half of the 19th
century, after much agitations and protests on the part of the colonies.

Definitions of Punishment
 Punishment is a means of social control. It is a device to cause people to
become cohesive and to induce conformity.
 Punishment is the infliction of some sort of pain on the offender for violating the
law.

 Penalty imposed, as for transgression of law any pain, penalty, forfeiture, or


confinement imposed by the court for a wrong doing.

Early Codes
1. Babylonian and Sumerian Codes
 Lex Talionis (eye for an eye) based on Sumerian Code (1860 B.C.)
 Code of King Hammurabi (1750 B.C.) 500 years before of Covenant. Enacted by
King Hammurabi, the sixth Babylonian King. The partial copies exist on a human-
sized stone and various clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws, with scaled
punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" of lex talionis as
graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man
 Book of Covenant (1250 B.C.)

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

2. Crime and Sin — "Get right with God", directive that the offender must make peace
with God through repentance and atonement. The early codes even the Ten
Commandments were designed to make the offender's punishment acceptable to both
society and God.
3. Roman and Greek Codes
 Code of Justinian (Sixth Century A.D.) - the legal code of ancient Rome; codified
under Justinian which is the basis for many modern systems of civil law
 Code of Graco in Greece - Concept of public good is more important than
individual injury or vengeance.
4. Middle Ages — Reformation was viewed as a process of religious, not secular,
redemption. As in early civilizations, the sinner had to pay debts, one to society and
another to God
Note:
 Inquisition - A former Roman Catholic tribunal for the discovery and punishment
of heresy; an investigation conducted with little regard for individual rights
through a severe questioning. Emperor Frederick Il made the inquisition a formal
institution in 1224 and lasted until 1834. The main contribution of the medieval
church in the history of correction is the concept of free will.

ANCIENT FORMS OF PUNISHMENT: Punishment of Primitive Society

DEATH PENALTY (Capital punishment) — Sentencing a convicted person to death


by means of hanging, burning, immersing in boiling oil, feeding to wild animals and
other barbaric ways.

Origins of Capital Punishment (Death Penalty)


Since the earliest societies, capital punishments which are often referred to as
the death penalty, has been used as a method of crime deterrence since the earliest
societies. Historical records show that even the most ancient primitive tribes utilized
methods of punishing wrongdoers, including taking their lives, to pay for the crimes they
committed. Murder most often warrants this ultimate form of punishment. "A life for a
life" has been one of the most basic concepts for dealing with crime since the start of
recorded history.
As tribal societies developed into social classes and humankind created its own
self-governed republics, capital punishment became a common response to a variety of
crimes, including sexual assault, treason, and various military offenses. Written rules
were created to notify the people about the penalties they would face for participating in
any of these misdeeds. One of the earliest written documents that supported the death
penalty was the Code of Hammurabi, which was written on stone tablets around 1760
BC. It contained 282 laws that were collected by the Babylonian King Hammurabi,
including the theory of an "eye for an eye." Several other ancient documents supported
capital punishment, including the Jewish Torah, the Christian Old Testament, and the
writings of an Athenian legislator named Draco, who proposed the death penalty for a
large variety of misdeeds in ancient Greece.
Early forms of capital punishment were designed to be slow, painful, and
torturous. In some ancient cultures, law breakers were put to death by stoning,
2

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

crucifixion, being burned at the stake, and even slowly being crushed by elephants.
Later societies found these methods to be cruel and unusual forms of punishment, and
sought out more humane practices. During the 18th and 19th centuries, legal bodies
found faster and less painful approaches to the death penalty, including hanging and
beheading with the guillotine While these were still violent and bloody practices that
were often large public spectacle* the end result was usually instantaneous and
therefore seen as more compassionate.
In the United States, capital punishment has existed since the founding of the
original colonies, and was utilized for a large number of crimes including burglary,
murder, treason, counterfeiting, and arson. Outside of the law, lynch mobs often formed
to bring the accused to justice. Law makers in the U.S. began to review and revise
policies behind the death penalty around the time of the American Revolution. In 1791,
the American Constitution was amended for the eighth time, to prohibit any form of
punishment considered "cruel and unusual." Although this was not an attempt to ban
capital punishment, it did begin a movement towards carrying out more humane
executions. By the late 1800s, employees of Thomas Edison introduced the electric
chair to accomplish this goal. Later, in the 1970s, lethal injections entered the foray as
another option.
Over time, the death penalty has become even more controversial throughout the
world. Opponents to the practice declare it to be inhumane and unfair, and believe that
no life should be taken, regardless of the crime that has been committed. DNA testing
has proven the innocence of several individuals on death row, and the argument that no
one should be executed to avoid killing an innocent individual has grown in response.
Several states in the U.S. no longer support the death penalty, and many countries
have abolished the practice completely.

Death by Sawing
This form of execution is most closely associated with the reign of the Roman
Emperor Caligula. The criminal was attached to an arch of wood and then sawn
vertically from the groin down through the skull.

The Garotte
Pictured is a 1901 execution of a prisoner at Bilibid Prison in Manila Garotting
was outlawed in the Philippines in 1902.
3

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

Garotte was used in Spain for hundreds of years, the garotte is an efficient
means of execution by asphyxiation. In an earlier version, the victim was tied to a stake
and a loop of rope was placed around his/her neck. A rod in the loop was turned until
the rope tightened, choking the victim. In later versions, the stake was replaced with a
chair in which the victim was bound, and the rope was replaced with a metal collar. Until
1940, Spain implemented a version of the garotte which included a spike which was
driven into the spinal cord as the collar tightened.

Guillotine
Conceived in the late 1700's this was one of the first methods of execution
created under the assumption that capital punishment was intended to end life rather
than inflict pain. Although it was specifically invented as a human form of execution it
has been outlawed in France and the last one was in 1977.

Premature Burial
Somewhat self-explanatory, this technique has been used by governments
throughout history to execute condemned prisoners. One of the latest documented
cases was during the Nanking Massacre in 1937 when Japanese troops buried Chinese
civilians alive.

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered


Used mainly in England, it is widely considered to be one of the most brutal
forms of execution ever devised. As the name implies it came in three parts. In the first
the victim was tied to a wooden frame and dragged to the location of their execution
(drawn). They were then hung until nearly dead (hanged). Immediately after being taken
down their abdomen was opened and their entrails were removed. As the victim
watched were then burned before his or her eyes. He was then also emasculated and
eventually beheaded. After all of this his body was divided into four parts (quartered)
and placed in various locations around England as a public crime deterrent. This
punishment was only used on men for any convicted woman would generally be burnt
at the stake as a matter of decency.

Electric Chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an
execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is
strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed
on the head and leg. This execution method, conceived in 1881 by a Buffalo, New York
dentist named Alfred Southwick, was developed throughout the 1880s as a humane
alternative to hanging and first used in 1890. This execution method has been used in
the United States and, for a period of several decades, in the Philippines (its first use
there in 1924, last in 1976).
Historically, once the condemned person was attached to the chair, various
cycles (differing in voltage and duration) of alternating current would be passed through
the individual's body, in order to cause fatal damage to the internal organs (including the
5

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

brain). The first more powerful jolt of electric current was designed to pass through the
head and cause immediate unconsciousness and brain death. The second less
powerful jolt was designed to cause fatal damage to the vital organs. Death may also be
caused by electrical overstimulation of the heart.

Firing Squad
Execution by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading (frorn the French fusil,
rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times
of war. Execution by shooting is a fairly old practice. Some reasons for its use are that
firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ usually kills
relatively quickly. Before the introduction of firearms, bows or crossbows were often
used — Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary
archers in around 288 ÄD; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia, by some accounts,
was tied to a tree and executed by Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870 AD.
A firing squad is normally composed of several military personnel or law
enforcement officers. Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire
simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by a single member and
identification of the member who fired the lethal shot. To avoid the disfigurement of
multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart,
sometimes aided by a paper target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded, as
well as restrained, although in some cases prisoners have asked to be allowed to face
the firing squad without their eyes covered. Executions can be carried out with the
condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such
executions are carried out at first light, or at sunrise, which is usually up to half an hour
later. This gave rise to the phrase "shot at dawn."
Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearm,
such as an execution by a single firearm to the back of the head or neck. However, the
single shot by the squad’s officer with a pistol is sometimes incorporated in a firing
squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediate fatal.
Note:
Death penalty per se does not violate the constitutional rights against cruel, degrading
and unusual punishment. Punishment so if it involves torture or a lingering death but
the punishment of death is not cruel within the meaning of in the word as used in the
6

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

1987 Constitution. It implies there something inhuman and barbarous, something more
the mere extinguishment of life. (People v. Mercado, GR No. 116239, November 29,
2000)

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT (Physical Torture)


Torture, flogging, beating, branding, mutilation and blinding are among the
means of corporal punishment (any physical pain inflicted short of death). Many tortures
were used to extract a “confession” from the accused, often resulting in death penalty
for an innocent person. Mutilation was often used in an attempt to match the crime with
an “appropriate” punishment.
Early Babylonian law developed be principle of lex talionis, which asserted that
criminals should receive as punishment precisely those injuries they had inflicted upon
their victims. Many subsequent societies applied this "eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-
tooth principle quite Iiterally in dealing with offenders. From ancient times through the 18
century, corporal punishments were commonly used in those instances that did not call
for the death penalty or for exile or transportation. But the growth of humanitarian ideals
during the Enlightenment and afterward led to the gradual abandonment of corporal
punishment, and by the later 20th century it had been almost entirely replaced by
imprisonment or other nonviolent penalties.

Flogging
Otherwise known as whipping, flogging became a common punishment in almost
all Western civilizations. The method was used particularly to preserve discipline in
domestic, military, and academic settings. Administration was commonly done by a
short lash at the end of a solid handle about three feet long, or by a whip made of nine
knotted wires, lines, or cords fastened to a handle (cat-o’-nine-tails), sometimes with
barbed-wire spikes worked into the knots.

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

The Brazen Bull


The Brazen Bull was a hollow brass statue crafted to resemble a real bull.
Victims were inside, usually with their tongues cut out first. The door was shut, sealing
them in. Fires would then be lit around the bull. As the victim succumbed to the searing
heat inside, he would thrash about and scream in agony. The movements and sounds,
muted by the bull's mass, made the apparatus appear alive, the sounds inside like those
of a real bull. This effect created additional amusement for the audience, and served the
added benefit of distancing them from the brutality of torture, since they couldn't directly
see the victim. Legend has it that this device was invented by a Greek named Perilaus
(Perilaus in some sources) for a tyrant named Phalaris of Agrigentum. Expecting a
handsome reward for his creativity, Perillus instead became the first person placed
inside the Brazen Bull. By some reports, Phalaris himself became an eventual victim of
the bull when his subjects grew tired of his mistreatment.

Wheel
Wheels were adapted to many torturous uses. They could be part of a stretching
rack, but medieval torturers were far too creative to leave it at that. Early torturers were
fond of tying someone to a large wooden wheel, then pushing it down a rocky hillside. A
more elaborate method involved a wheel mounted to an A-frame that allowed it to swing
freely. The victim would be tied to the wheel, and then swung across some undesirable
thing below - fire was always a good choice, but dragging the victim's flesh across metal
spikes also worked well. The wheel itself could also have spikes mounted on it, so the
8

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

pain came from all directions. Instead of swinging, the wheel might turn on an axle. The
difference was likely immaterial to the victims.
One of the most horrible wheel tortures was akin to crucifixion. The victim would
have the bones in all four limbs broken in two places by strikes from an iron bar. Then,
the shattered limbs were threaded through the spokes of a large wheel. Finally, the
wheel would be attached to the top of a tall wooden pole and left out in the sun for days.
The victim might be alive for hours, enduring the agony of his or her mangled arms and
legs and the relentless sun, not to mention the attentions of crows.

PUBLIC HUMILIATION OR SHAMMING


The purpose of this was to put the offender to shame. This was affected by use
of stocks and pillory, docking stool, branding, shaving off the hair etc.

BANISHMENT OR TRANSPORTATION
This is the sending or putting away of an offender which was carried out either by
a prohibition against coming into a specified territory, or a prohibition against going
outside a specified territory, such as island to where the offender has been removed.

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

Convicts on their way to Transportation from London

Brief Origin of Banishments


The first major innovation in eighteenth-century penal practice was the
substantial expansion of the use of transportation by England. Although it was believed
that transportation might lead to the reformation of the offender, the primary motivations
behind this punishment were a belief in its deterrent effect, and a desire to simply
remove hardened criminals from society.
Although many convicts were transported in the seventeenth century, it was done
at their own expense or at the expense of merchants or ship-owners. In the early
eighteenth century transportation came to be seen as a way of creating an effective
alternative to death penalty that avoided the apparent leniency of the other main
options: benefit of clergy and whipping. In 1718 the first Transportation Act allowed the
courts to sentence felons guilty of offences subject to benefit of clergy to seven years
transportation to America. In 1720 a further statute authorized payments by the state to
the merchants who contracted to take the convicts to America.
The first Transportation Act also allowed those guilty of capital offences and
pardoned by the King to be sentenced to transportation, and established returning from
transportation as a capital offence.
In 1776 transportation was halted by the outbreak of war with America. Although
convicts continued to be sentenced to transportation, male convicts were confined to
hard labor in hulks on the Thames, while women were imprisoned. Transportation
resumed in 1787 with a new destination: Australia. This was seen as a more serious
punishment than imprisonment, since it involved exile to a distant land.
In the early nineteenth century, as part of the revisions of the criminal law,
transportation for life was substituted as the maximum punishment for several offences
which had previously been punishable by death.
Opposition to transportation mounted in the 1830s, however, with complaints that
it to deter crime, did not lead to the reformation of the convicts, and that conditions in
the convict colonies were inhumane. The number of convicts sentenced to
transportation began to decline in the 1840s. Transportation was theoretically abolished
by the penal Servitude Act of 1857, which substituted penal servitude for all
transportation sentences

10

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

Contemporary Forms of Punishment


1. Imprisonment - The most common form of punishment. Putting offenders in
prison for the purpose of protecting the public and at the same time rehabilitating
by requiring the latter to undergo institutional treatment program.
2. Payment of Fines - This is common to violations of minor offenses. However'
there are crimes where fines are imposed with imprisonment.
3. Parole - Is defined as a procedure by which prisoners are selected for release on
the basis of individual response the progress within the correctional institution
and service by which they are provided the necessary controls and guidance as
they serve the remainder of their sentence within the free community.
4. Conditional Pardon - Executive clemency power to be exercise exclusively by
the Chief Executive/President. The imposition of conditions is likewise within the
discretion of the President.
5. Probation - it is a procedure under which an accused found guilty of a crime is
released by the court with conditions and subject to the supervision of the
probation officer.
6. Death Penalty - Sentencing a convicted person to death especially to those who
convicted of heinous crimes.
7. Corporal Punishment - Physical torture as punishment short to death penalty
are still practice in other states but not here in the Philippines because of the
constitutional prohibition for such imposition.
8. Banishment - Otherwise known as transformation, this is carried out by sending
or putting away of an offender either by a prohibition against coming into a
specified territory, or a prohibition against going outside a specified territory, such
as island to where the offender has been removed.
9. Community Service - Like payment of fines, this is commonly imposes to those
simple infraction of laws.

Justification of Punishment
1. Retribution - personal vengeance
2. Expiation or Atonement - group vengeance
3. Deterrence or Exemplarity - imposing penalty to deter criminality
4. Protection/Social Defense - shown by its inflexible severity to recidivist and
habitual delinquents
5. Reformation - as shown by the rules which regulate the execution of the
penalties consisting in deprivation of liberty

Theories Justifying Imposition of Penalty (Punishment)


1. Prevention Theory - the state must punish the criminal to prevent or suppress
the danger to the state arising from the criminal acts of the offender.
2. Self Defense Theory - the state has the right to punish the criminal as a
measure of self-defense so as to protect society from the threat and wrong
inflicted by the criminal.
3. Reformation Theory - the object of punishment to correct and reform the
offenders.

11

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

4. Exemplary Theory - the criminal is punished is to serve as an example to deter


others from committing crimes.
5. Justice Theory - the crime must be punished by the state as an act of retributive
justice a vindication of absolute right and moral law violated by the criminal.

Constitutional provisions for the imposition of Punishment


Section 1, Article 111 of the 1987 Constitution is the main provision in limitation
for punishment.
"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without DUE PROCESS
OF LAW, nor shall be denied the EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS"

Considering that by imposition of punishment, a person may be deprived of life,


liberty or property, the Constitution requires the observance of two Constitutional
guarantees: 1). Due process of law; and 2). Equal Protection of the laws.

Judicial Conditions of Penalty


1. Must be productive of suffering - without however affecting the integrity the
human personality
2. Must be commensurate with the offense - different crimes must be punished
with different penalties
3. Must be personal - no one should be punished for the crime of another
4. Must be legal - it is the consequence of a judgment according to law
5. Must be certain - no one may escape its effects
6. Must be equal to all
7. Must be correctional

Other Consequences of Punishment


1. Punishment through imprisonment often isolates the criminal, causing in him a
stigma and develops in his person a strong resentment of authority.
2. It may develop cautions on part of the criminals for their illegal activities to avoid
punishment to be imposed by the government if caught.
3. Constructive efforts of the government may not be appreciated causing lack of
respect for the law, lack of patriotism and loss of self-respect.
4. Other citizen may idolize the criminal thus giving an offender higher status as
alpha male in his community.

Effects of Punishments
It is recognized that some form of punishment can be effective when applied in
the right amounts and at the right time. But when the ideology of punishment is applied
in a correctional institution, result is usually negative for both the punished and the
punisher. Correctional personnel tend to watch for minor rule infringements or non-
conformism so that punishment can be administered, and they overlook the any positive
actions by offender. Often the rules that are prepared for a punishment-oriented
environment surround offender with a wall of "do not," leaving almost no leeway to do
anything. As evidence by a high crime rate, it seems that punishment is ineffective to
stop criminal activities and in the process, punishment is enforced more severely as a
12

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

means to control criminal behavior. Which in turn makes the offender become more
sophisticated in perpetrating his criminal activities with the belief that makes him or her
less likely to be detected.
With the continued application of coercive methods; the offender became
hardened by the punishment, and the administrators learn to dole it out automatically as
their only means of control both parties are degraded in the process.

However, there are other factors that contribute to make punishment a least
effective means of reducing crime:
1. Over severity of punishment may arose public sympathy for the offender.
2. Those persons most likely to be imprisoned are already accustomed to
experience deprivation and frustration of goals routinely in daily life.
3. It is impossible to fashion a practical legal "Slide Rule" which will determine exact
degrees of retribution appropriate for the list of crimes ranging from simple theft
to murder.
4. The simple application of naked coercion does not guarantee that the subject of
its force will alter their behavior to conform to new legal norms or to improve their
conformity with norms previously violated.
5. The possibility of deterrence varies with the chances of keeping the particular
type of crime secret and consequently of avoiding social reprobation.

Exemptions from Punishment


Not everyone found violated penal laws will be subjected to punishment. Under
Article 12 of the Revised Penal Code as amended, the following are the enumerated
circumstances which exempt a person from criminal liability:

1. An imbecile or an insane person, unless the insane person has acted during lucid
interval
2. A minor under 15 years of age
3. A minor over 15 years of age but under 18 unless he acted with discernment
4. Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury by
mere accident without fault or intention of causing it
5. Any person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force
6. Any person who acts under the impulse of uncontrollable fear of an equal or
greater injury
7. Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by some
lawful or insuperable cause.

There are also persons exempt from the operation of our criminal laws by virtue of
the principles of public international law. These persons are Sovereigns and other
Heads of States, Ambassadors, Ministers plenipotentiary, Ministers resident and
Charges d' Affaires.

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN CORRECTION


A. PRE-CLASSICAL THEORIES

13

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

 Secular Theory of Punishment — The first person who attempted to explain


crime is Aristotle, an Athenian philosopher. In his book entitled "Nicomedean
Ethics", he discussed the philosophy of corrective justice. According to him,
punishment is a means of restoring the balance between pleasure and pain,
whereby the loss suffered by the victim is compensated by the suffering of the
offender hence, restoring the balance between the injured and the transgressor”.
 Judean-Christian Theory — This theory adhered that punishment has a
redemptive purpose of repelling sin advocated by the devil. This theory was at its
fullest development during the death of Christ in 30 A.D."
 The Rise of Canonical Courts (Church' Court) — In the history, a system of
trial and punishment was established in the 4th Century A.D. The rivalry existed
between church and state in trying offense. In the early Christian era, the church
forbid its adherence to resort to state court and later in the medieval period the
power of state courts declined and the power of Canonical court was mainly
reformatory in purpose.
 Individualization of Punishment — the lawmakers and judges had the practical
task of making and administering law not only in the light of such theories of free
will and responsibility, but also face to face with the indignation of the community
at a particular offense.
 Abuse of Judicial Individualization — the taw gave judges wide discretion to
impose additional penalties in view of the circumstances. This theory gave the
judges tyrannical power which led to abuses. Class discrimination in the
administration of justice arose.

B. CLASSICAL SCHOOL
This theory considered man as a free moral agent therefore he is responsible for
his acts. The classical theory came about as a direct result of two influences: (1). It
came about as a protest against the abuses of discretionary power of judges; and (2).
Influenced by the School of French philosopher and writer ROUSSEAU and his writings
contained in his book "Social Contract"
Cesare Beccaria published his book entitled "Crime and Punishment in 1764
protested against cruelties and inequalities of the law and the courts during that time.
Baccaria suggested that it is the legislature not the court must determine the exact
punishment appropriate to each crime. No discretion would thus be left to the judge.

Beccaria's protest was directed against the following:


1. Arbitrary penalties given by judges
2. Uncertainty and obscurity of the laws
3. Defects in criminal procedure in admission of testimonies
4. Secret accusations
5. Torture
6. Incrimination of witnesses
7. Long pending cases
8. Abuse of power by rich against the poor

Advantages of Classical School


14

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

a. Easy administration
b. Elimination of arbitrary sentence

Disadvantages of Classical School


a. Unfairness — men are treated equally without regard to differences in individual
nature of the circumstances
b. Punishment is not individualized
c. Professional criminals may calculate the risks of commission of the offense
d. Focused on the injury as the result of the crime, not the state of mind and nature
of the criminal
e. It is more idealistic than realistic

C. NEO-CLASSICAL SCHOOL — the principles of classical school remained intact but


the system of defined and variable punishment was modified. The judge was given
discretion in certain crimes to vary punishments between the maximum and minimum
fixed by law.

Significant contributions of Neo Classical School


1. Exempting circumstances
2. Reduction of Punishment for partial freedom of the will only partial punishment
3. Punishment mitigating for lack of full responsibility
4. It represents the reaction against the severity of the classical theory of equal
punishment irrespective of circumstances

D.POSITIVE SCHOOL (The Italian School) - defined individual responsibility and


reflected an essentially non-punitive reaction to crime and criminality. Since the criminal
was held to be not responsible for his acts, he was not be punished. The adherents of
this school maintained that a crime, as any other act, is a natural phenomenon.

CESARE LOMBROSO
According to Lombroso there are classes of criminals: 1). Born Criminals
(atavism); 2). Insane Criminals (idiot, imbecile, dementia, paralysis, etc.); and 3).
Criminaloids (not born with physical stigma but who are of such mental make-up that
they display anti-social conduct. Psychological defect, not physical).

ENRICO FERRI
Published in 1878 "The Theory of Imputability and Denial of Freewill", and
Criminal Sociology in 1884. Ferri contributed to emphasis upon the social factors: 1).
Physical factors, including geographical climate and temperature; 2). Anthropological,
including psychological; and 3). Social, including economic and political factors as well
as gender, education and religion.

RAFFAELE GAROFALO
According to him, crime can be understood only as it is studied by scientific
methods. The criminal is not a free moral agent, but is the product of circumstances. He
traced roots of criminal behavior to psychological equivalents to stigmata called "moral
15

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT
CCJE Department

anomalies Likewise, natural crimes found in all society, regardless of the views of
lawmakers, and no civilized society can affords to disregard them.

These are among the beliefs of Garofalo regarding natural crime and peculiarities of
offender:
1. Peculiarities: Particular characteristics that place offenders at risk for criminal
behavior
2. Extreme criminals: Execution for punishment
3. Impulsive criminals: Imprisonment for punishment
4. Professional criminals: Punishment is "elimination," either by life imprisonment
transportation to a penal colony overseas
5. Endemic criminals: Controlled through changes in the law

E. MODERN CLINICAL SCHOOL- it studies the criminal rather than the crime. This
school is interested primarily in the personality of the criminal himself in order to
determine the conditioning circumstances that explain his criminality and in order to
obtain light upon problem of how he should be handled.

16

Name of Instructor: MAY ANGELA L. GRAY RCrim.


Year Level: BS CRIM 2 Subject: CA 1
NICOSAT COLLEGES,
INC.

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