Patterns of Criminal Behavior Among Inmates at Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm

Chapter I

Problem and Its Background

"Offenders are sophisticated data thieves who will only stop their illegal behavior when confronted with strong criminal penalties" Steve Largent (2009)

Introduction

Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law, forbidding or commanding it. Thus, without any law defining or forbidding a certain act, there will be no crime. Any person, who violates the law or commits a crime, cannot be punished unless there is a law which defines the said crime committed, and prescribes the proper penalty. Hence, penology cannot exist without criminal law. Furthermore, Penology is a study pertaining to crime, criminal's acts and their corresponding punishment; it also covers the scientific aspect and philosophy justifying the punishment of the violation of laws, which we call crimes.

How do some people decide to commit a crime? Do they think about the benefits and the risks? Why do some people commit crimes regardless of the consequences? Why do others never commit a crime, no matter how desperate their circumstances? Criminology is the study of crime and criminals by specialists called criminologists. Criminologists study what causes crime and how it might be prevented.

Throughout history people have tried to explain what causes abnormal social behavior, including crime. Efforts to control "bad" behavior go back to ancient Babylon's Code of Hammurabi some 3,700 years ago. Later in the seventeenth century European colonists in North America considered crime and sin the same thing. They believed evil spirits possessed those who did not conform to social norms or follow rules. To maintain social order in the settlements, persons who exhibited antisocial behavior had to be dealt with swiftly and often harshly.

Reasons for committing a crime include greed, anger, jealously, revenge, or pride. Some people decide to commit a crime and carefully plan everything in advance to increase gain and decrease risk. These people are making choices about their behavior; some even consider a life of crime better than a regular job believing crime brings in greater rewards, admiration, and excitement at least until they are caught. Others get an adrenaline rush when successfully carrying out a dangerous crime. Others commit crimes on impulse, out of rage or fear.

To secure justice, the state has an existence of its own to maintain a conscience of its own to assert, are moral principles to vindicate. Penal justice must therefore be exercised by the state in the service and satisfaction of duty and rests primarily in the moral rightfulness of the punishment to be inflicted. Originated from God, punishment and penalties were enforced which we called "Natural Law". Adam and Eve broke the law, so they were the first