The course will be devoted to the sociology of deviance, theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system and the operation of alternative measures. In the final part, with the help of a supervision magistrate, the measure of house arrest will be treated in depth and students will be requested to draft a measure about it on the basis of an actual practice from a Supervision Court
Students attending classes will be evaluated on the basis of their active participation in the course and seminar and theoretical activities, and of the drafted measure. The final exam will consist in a discussion with the teacher about the topics treated in the initial stage, the theoretical report and the drafted measure.
Non-attending students will be required to study the following texts:
E. M, NIRO-E.SIGNORINI, Gli arresti domiciliari e la detenzionedomicliare, Cedam, Padova, 2010
E. SANTORO, Carcere e società liberale, II edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2004 (pp. 372)
Learning Objectives
Understanding
Knowledge about the sociology of deviance, theories of punishment, the sociology of the penitentiary system, and alternative measures.
Skills
Ability to analyze the relationship between law and social reality, in particular the social impact of criminal rules and the ways of managing social problems. Ability to relating with others and to discuss issues associated with alternative measures in depth and to draft a reasoned measure of grant or denial.
Competences
Approach to law as a ‘social question’. Aptitude to historicize the offence-punishment link, to connect the problems of the political-social order with the theories of deviance and punishment. Ability to assess the elements leading to the grant or denial of alternative measures.
Prerequisites
Students must have passed the exams of General Constitutional Law, Private Law I. It is recommended to have passed the exams of Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
Teaching Methods
Lectures: 20 hours
Workshops on alternative measusre: 10 hours
Seminars: 10 hours
Type of Assessment
Intermediate tests: students must expose the first paper at mid-term and discuss other students’ papers in seminars.
Final exam: for attending students, it will consist in a discussion of the two written papers; for non-attending students, it will be about the textbooks.
Course program
The course is divided into three parts.
In the first part the different legal-sociological theories about the functions of the punishing system will be introduced, with particular reference to the different kinds of deviance and penitentiary institutions.
There will follow a seminar part involving the reading of texts, the drafting of papers and their collective discussion. Students can choose to study some topics more in depth, including: the different interpretations of the evolution of punishing systems; social control; the psychological and anthropological foundations of punishment; the relationship between morality and criminal law; the opposition between the classical school and the positive school (Lombroso and Ferri); retribution, due process and deterrence theories; the opposition between punishment and offender’s treatment; abolitionist theories; the sociology of prison life; ‘total institutions’; the process of degradation of defendants and convicts; the representation of deviance in the media; the transition from the welfare state to the ‘penal state’; theories of juvenile deviance; Durkheim’s sociology of punishment: anomie; the Chicago school; the labelling theory; critical criminology and the new criminological realism.
The last part will consist in a 15 hours’ module coordinated by a supervision magistrate, concluded with the drafting of a house arrest measure. In the first part of the module rules about house arrest will be illustrated and discussed. Then facsimiles of some surveillance court files will be distributed to all participants. Under the direction of the supervision magistrate, students will examine a file and, on the basis of the information contained in it (request, prison report, report of the external penal execution board, police information, sentence, etc.) they will draft a measure of grant or denial.
In order to attend seminars, a good (passive) knowledge of English is strongly recommended. Moreover, as an introduction to and support of seminar activity and the study of house arrest the following readings are recommended:
M, NIRO-E.SIGNORINI, Gli arresti domiciliari e la detenzionedomicliare, Cedam, Padova, 2010
E. SANTORO, Carcere e società liberale, II edizione, Giappichelli, Torino 2004 (pp. 372).
During the last part of the course materials on alternative measures required to examine the file and draft the measure will be distributed.