Criminal punishment in the mirror of contradictory approaches

Purpose. This article is devoted to the consideration of a number of criminological, penological, legal, sociological and philosophical approaches to criminal punishment that have been developed to date and are partly competing and competing with each other as a rather complex and diverse socio-legal phenomenon. The author has set as his task (as a concretization of a common goal) to consider the differing views on criminal punishment of two great Russian writers – L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky. In this regard, he highlighted and emphasized the depth and sophistication of views of F.M. Dostoevsky. In response to Dostoevsky's questions concerning the psychology of criminals and people who are being punished, it is noted that in his books the suffering caused by punishment turns out to be atonement and a purifying blessing in comparison with the torments of the soul experienced by a criminal who is not subject to punishment.
Methods. The methodological basis of the research was made up of general scientific and private scientific methodological tools: the method of abstraction, the comparative historical method, the method of retrospection, the methods of induction and deduction, as well as comparative, logical-semantic and functional methods.
Results. The author's criticism of some aspects of the penological system of the Russian-American sociologist and cultural critic P.A. Sorokin is presented. Arguments are made in defense of the legislative formulation and the combination of purposes of criminal punishment in the text of the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The author's vision of the problem of combining and resolving contradictions between the so-called absolute and relative theories of punishment in penology (retributionism and consequentialism) is shown.
Conclusions. The article proves that absolute and relative theories of punishment can be reconciled and cooperated, since the need to protect society and individuals from crimes does not exclude an approach to punishment as restoring justice and applying it on a proportionate (retaliatory) basis, acting as a deterrent and limiter of arbitrariness in penitentiary activities. Modern penological scientists are invited to focus their scientific efforts on the development of integrative or mixed (combining features of absolute and relative theories) concepts of criminal punishment.

1. Ferry E. Criminal sociology. Moscow; 1908. 591 p. (In Russ.)

2. List F. Punishment and its goals. Saint Petersburg; 1895. 72 p. (In Russ.)

3. Prince A. Protection of society and the transformation of criminal law. Moscow; 1912. 157 p. (In Russ.)

4. Lombroso C. L'Uomo delinquente: studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie. Milano; 1876. 256 p. (In Ital.)

5. Loba V. E. «Recipes» for combating crime of the sociological school of criminal law. Bulletin of Tomsk State University. Law. 2013;(4):100–107. (In Russ.)

6. Kuznetsova N. F. Crime and criminality. Moscow; 1969. 231 p. (In Russ.)

7. Sorochinsky N. P. On the issue of the right of punishment. Bulletin of the Law. 1905;(6):27–59. (In Russ.)

8. Tolstoy L. N. On truth, life and behavior. Moscow; 2014. 992 p. (In Russ.)

9. Savenkov A. N. Nuremberg: verdict in the name of peace. Moscow; 2021. 760 p. (In Russ.)

10. Kozachenko I. Ya., Korsakov K. V., Leshchenko V. G. Church-religious influence on those sentenced to imprisonment. Hamburg; 2012. 264 p. (In Russ.)

11. Laut R. Dostoevsky's philosophy in a systematic presentation. Moscow; 1996. 446 p. (In Russ.)

12. Dostoevsky F. M. Notes from the dead house. Petrozavodsk; 1979. 293 p. (In Russ.)

13. Dostoevsky F. M. The diary of a writer. Moscow; 2010. 880 p. (In Russ.)

14. Boiko A. I. The legal pandemic (on excessive legitimization of the dormitory and the oblivion of other regulatory systems) // North Caucasian Legal Bulletin. 2023;(2):17–31. (In Russ.)

15. Amiruddin. Analisis Pola Pemberantasan Korupsi Dalam Pengadaan Barang/Jasa Pemerintah. Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia. 2012;(8-1):26–37.

16. Sorokin P. A. Crime and punishment, feat and reward. A sociological study on the basic forms of social behavior and morality. Saint Petersburg; 1914. 456 p. (In Russ.)

17. Sorokin P. A. Man. Civilization. Society. Moscow; 1992. 543 p. (In Russ.)

18. Sorokin P. A. Laws of punishment development from the point of view of the psychological theory of law by L.I. Petrazhitsky. In: New ideas in jurisprudence. Collection 3: The evolution of crimes and punishments. Saint Petersburg; 1914:113–151. (In Russ.)

19. Levi-Strauss K. Totemism today. Untamed thought. Moscow; 2008. 520 p. (In Russ.)

20. Iering R. «On vodka». Kiev; 1883. 66 p. (In Russ.)

21. Poznyshev S. V. The main issues of the doctrine of punishment. Moscow; 1904. 447 p. (In Russ.)

22. Liszt F. Lehrbuch des deutschen strafrechts. Berlin; 1899. 719 s. (In Germ.)

23. Esipov V. V. An essay on Russian criminal law. The part is common. Crime and criminals. Punishment and the punishable. Warsaw; 1894. 419 p. (In Russ.)

24. Hart H. L. A. Punishment and responsibility: essays on the philosophy of law. Oxford; 1968. 237 p.

25. Hart G. L. A. The concept of law. Saint Petersburg; 2007. 300 p. (In Russ.)

26. Carolina. The Penal Code of Charles V. Ed. by S. Z. Zimanov. Alma-Ata; 1967. 152 p. (In Russ.)