Word: poenae
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...trouble is that penology (from the Latin poena, meaning penalty) is still an infant art given to fads and guesswork, like the 1920s reformers who yanked tens of thousands of teeth from hapless inmates on the theory that bad teeth induced criminality. Even now, penology has not begun to exploit the findings of behavioral scientists who believe that criminal behavior is learned, and can be unlearned with the proper scientific methods...
What eludes U.S. penology (from the Latin poena, meaning pain) is the basic recipe of effective punishment: speedy, inescapable prosecution, a fair chance for a fresh start, and state-upheld values that offenders can reasonably acknowledge as superior to their own. For one thing, 77% of reported U.S. crimes are never solved; many are never even reported. Thus, most caught criminals see their problem as bad luck rather than bad character. Indeed, such are the human mind's defenses that the guilty often feel in nocent. Dostoevsky astutely depicts a would-be murderer viewing...
Said Dr. Giirtner: "We have substituted for the outworn maxim nulla poena sine lege ('no punishment unless law has been infringed') the more efficacious nulla crimen sine poena ('no crime left unpunished'), regardless of whether or not law has been infringed." "For the German judge as for the private citizen," continued the Minister of Justice, "the Nazi philosophy of life will be the guiding light. . . . Every clause in the penal code will have a 'danger zone.' Whoever moves in this sphere will do so at his own risk. . . . Wrong may exist, accordingly...
...Full removal of the poena, or temperal punishment, due the sinner after the culpa, or guilt, has been forgiven...
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