Jain Journal 1980 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 25

OCTOBER, 1980
63
of social defence. With its inter-disciplinary aspects, its changing concept-values and its transitional phase, penology would require a new definition in its confrontation with the immutable Jaina Scriptures. For this purpose penology is defined here as Strategy in the fight against Crime and Jaina penology as Strategy in the fight against Karma.
Penology, so defined, can safely avoid the conflict and controversy with the sociological theorists who visualize crime not as "an inherent property of an act” but as mere deviance not conforming to the social norms. If social re-arrangement can immunize individual against crime, the technique of individual re-arrangement, known technically as process of samvara (impeding of karma), can equally and more efficiently immunize the society from crime.
The original structure of Penology, based upon 'lex-talionis', with the now obsolete, cruel and harsh forms of punishment such as branding, quartering, drowning, burning or boiling to death, bears an eloquent proof of the forces of retribution, retaliation and revenge that have prevailed upon human mind since antiquity. Freedom of will forms the basis for transfixing individual responsibility for a criminal act. When the same is coupled with intent, the liability for punishment arises. “As you sow so shall you reap' and 'He who sins must suffer' are the age-old sayings which not only caution the wrong-doer but have served as jural canons for the dispensation of justice. Other justifications for the infliction of punishment are :8 social utility, moral education, atonement, deterrence, prevention, expiation and finally reformation.
The modes and forms of punishment varied according to the age, time, place and finally the culture of the particular society. The three 'R's in the handling of criminals are :10 revenge, restraint and reformation, which in other words epitomize the history of penology indicative of world-civilization and emergence of culture-base readily traced back for two centuries. Revenge swings from motivation to justification
• The New Criminology : for a Social Theory of Deviance, p. 145. ? William Andrews, Old Times Punishments, 1971, London, See contents. * Lae H. Chang (ed), Criminology: A Cross Cultural Perspective, Vol II, p. 553, also see Salmond On Jurisprudence, London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1966, 12th Edn. by Fitzerald, p. 98 ; and John Lewis Gillin, Criminology and Penology, p. 219, 221-223 ff.
Criminology and Penology, p. 218. 19 Daniel Glaser, The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System, with a forward
by Robert F. Kennedy, Indianopolis, New York, Kansas City, The Boobs Merril Co. Inc, 1964, p. 6.