Studia Iuridica Lublinensia (Jun 2021)

Contrology and Criminal Law: Genesis, Current State, Perspectives

  • Wojciech Zalewski

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17951/sil.2021.30.2.381-397
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 30, no. 2
pp. 381 – 397

Abstract

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The present day brings a number of significant challenges for the state and the law, especially in the context of questions about the relationship between the state and the citizen. The development of science and technology provides wide opportunities for extending the methods of surveillance and control. State control, which is exercised through the instruments of criminal law, has been a subject of interest in criminology and criminal law for a long time. During the crisis of criminal law and criminology, which has been going on for over four decades, the question of the future of criminal law and criminology becomes utterly relevant. Progressive dehumanization causes that a person becomes a passive object of influence. In the long term, the belief in dealing with crime and effective crime management is consolidated, and in fact the phenomenon of delaying solutions is exacerbated. Social costs are rising. Automated technological justice is established. Doubts about the verification of control mechanisms are deepening. Who will control the controllers? Will the science of criminal law and criminology be replaced by a new science – contrology? Do questions about the etiology of crime, and especially the philosophical and ethical dimensions of punishment, lose their sense?

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