Penology
Code: 100462 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Criminology | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Anna Melendez Pereto
- Email:
- anna.melendez@uab.cat
Teachers
- Judit Xufre Calafell
- Alba Llagostera Garcia
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
There are no requests.
The subject follows the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
Language of the course
Lectures: Spanish
Seminar 11 (Prof. Anna Meléndez): English
Seminar 12 (Prof. Alba Llagostera): Spanish
Seminar 13 (Prof. Judit Xufré): Catalan
Objectives and Contextualisation
Looking at criminological topics, community sentences are characteristic of criminal justice systems beyond Europe and they have been a relevant topic the last decades. The aim of this subject - penology, alternatives to imprisonmnent- is to give an approach to the alternative system to imprisonment in Spain and in particular in Catalonia.
Competences
- Ability to analyse and summarise.
- Applying an intervention proposal about a person serving a sentence.
- Carrying out the criminological intervention on the basis of the values of pacification, social integration and prevention of further conflicts.
- Drawing up an academic text.
- Formulating research hypothesis in the criminological field.
- Identifying the most appropriate and effective penal intervention for each particular case.
- Reflecting on the foundations of criminology (theoretical, empirical and ethical-political ones) and expressing this in analysis and propositions.
- Students must demonstrate they know a variety of criminal policies in order to face criminality and its different foundations.
- Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking.
Learning Outcomes
- Ability to analyse and summarise.
- Accurately applying the most efficient criminal proceedings to the criminal act.
- Applying the appropriate foundations of criminal policy depending on the type of crime observed.
- Applying the scientific and criminological knowledge to the punishment studies.
- Carrying out penology researches with well-formulated hypothesis.
- Drawing up an academic text.
- Inferring those criminological proceedings that try to avoid criminal relapse.
- Suggesting the correct action that should be applied in a penal execution.
- Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking.
Content
Bloc 1: Introduction to punishment and community sanctions.
Theme 1. Introduction: criminology and punishment. Origins and evolution.
Theme 2. Theories on the justification of punishment
Theme 3. The Spanish penal System: Community punishments, Characteristics and evolution.
Theme 4. Punishment and punitive attitudes towards punishment.
Theme 5. Implementation of community Sanctions in Catalonia. The role of probation officers.
Bloc 2: Community Sanctions in the Spanish context.
Theme 6. Community sanctions: Community service.
Theme 7. Community sanctions: Probation.
Theme 8. Victim-Offender Mediation and other forms of Restorative Justice.
Theme 9. Sanctions without intervention: suspended sentences, fines and disqualifications.
Theme 10. Electronic monitoring.
Common Theme. Criminologists as advisors: criminological reports*.
*This topic is developed during seminars.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 19.5 | 0.78 | 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 |
| Seminars | 19.5 | 0.78 | 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Assessment | 5 | 0.2 | |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Group activities | 40 | 1.6 | 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 6, 1, 9, 11 |
| Mid-term and final exam preparation | 30 | 1.2 | 2, 4, 7, 8, 1, 10 |
| Reading preparation | 36 | 1.44 | 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 8, 1, 10 |
a) Lectures consist on the exposition -by the lecturer- of the topics list on the programme. Students may interact and discuss about the diferent topics explained. References likend to the topic need to be read in advance in order to get involved in the discussion.
b) Seminars consist on the performance of dynamics and rol playings in order to simulate real cases and situations linked to the community sancions enforcement. Debates based on theoretical topics and critical and reflexive comments about some of the compulsory readings may be part of seminars sessions as well.
c) Organization. The module has a time schedule that will be facilitated to the students at the begining of the semester. It includes weekly organization within the activities, in and outside of class.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group tasks | 10% | 0 | 0 | 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 8, 6, 1, 9, 10, 11 |
| Individual tasks | 90% | 0 | 0 | 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 8, 6, 1, 9, 10 |
Evaluation system
A. CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
The evaluation model of the subject of penology is a system of continuous character that combines both individual and group work. The evaluation process of the activities will take into account all the learning results of the student regarding the competencies and objectives that inspire each of the tasks. In order to pass the subject it is necessary to have the average of the two exams passed (a minimum of 5). Likewise, the average of all evaluation activities, individual and group, must have a minimum score of 5. In case of having any activity or failed exam not recovered, it will only be averaged with grades of 4 or higher. The report must score 5 or higher to make Average.
Individual work: 80%
a) Partial exams (50%). Students must take a partial exam at the end of each thematic block based on the mandatory bibliography indicated for each topic, power point presentations and class notes. Each exam will have a value of 25% and there will be two exams (Block 1 and Block 2). The average of the two exams must be 5 or higher in order to pass the subject (only average with a minimum grade of 4 will be made)
b) Participation (10%). Participation must be oral, active and reflective where the ability to argue in the activities proposed in the seminars is shown.
c) Individual case studies (10%). The seminars are organized on the basis of a dossier of cases and activities. The activities of preparation of the seminars (out of the classroom) and the activities carried out in the classroom as a result of the seminar are part of this note and must be delivered weekly. Two of the 4 activities are individual.
d) Preparation of a criminological report/dictamen (10%) of a practical case collected in the dossier worked in the seminars. It must be approved to make Media.
Attendece
In accordance with the regulations ofattendance of the degree of criminology for the current course, attendance is 100% mandatory. A minimum attendance of 80% is required in the teaching activities in order to be evaluated. The justified absences, which must be documented, will not be negatively computed and it will be facilitated that the student can recover the work done during his absence. Only those derived from force majeure that have occurred, such as illness or similar situations that prevent attending the teaching activities, are considered justified absences. The completion of other training activities of the degree may be considered as justified absences if accepted by the teacher responsible for the subject.
Group work: 20%.
Case studies (10%). The seminars are organized on the basis of a dossier of cases and activities. The activities of preparation of the seminars (out of the classroom) and the activities carried out in the classroom as a result of the seminar are part of this note and must be delivered weekly. The activities will be both group and individual. Three of the 4 activities are group
Group work (10%) on community criminal execution (specific methodology will be defined at the beginning of the subject). It will be necessary to expose the work orally by groups.
Resit
It will be possible to repeat those failed activities. As it is a continuous evaluation system, those students who do not satisfactorily pass any content, will have the possibility of recovering it during the course, always before the closing of events provided for in the academic calendar.
Plagiarism and cheating
In case of cheating during any of the exams, it will not be possible to repeat the exam and the subject and directly will suppose a suspense of it. The student will have to re-enrol the subject the following year. In accordance with the regulations of the Faculty of Law and the regulations of the UAB, plagiarism is prohibited and is sanctioned. Plagiarizing any ofthe activities of the subject implies that it can not be recovered and will imply a fail --0- in the activity. In case of detecting plagiarism in more than one activity, the affected students will suspend the subject.
Punctuality
Classes will start on time and it will not be possible to enter the classroom late or leave before completion without justified cause.
Non-evaluable student
A student can be graded as "not evaluable" when the student has not been able to provide sufficient evidence of evaluation of the subject (art 266.9, UAB Academic Regulations): "Students will be evaluable as long as they have carried out a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total grade of the subject. If the value of the activities carried out does not reach this threshold, the teacher of the subject may consider the student as not evaluable”.
B. THE SINGLE ASSESSMENT
Students who decide to follow the single assessment must demonstrate that they have acquired the set of competences of the subject, so that the evaluation task will consist of several parts (exam/activity). The material will be indicated in the bibliographic part of this teaching guide, together with the power points of all the topics available in moodle for all the students of the subject. The exam will have the following format:
1. Theoretical written activity 45% (short questions and a question to be developed applied)
2. Practical written activity 45% (resolution of a practical case with the design of the compliance plan)
3. Theoretical-practical oral activity 10% (Knowledge and oral defense of the criminological report applied to a case)
In case of noyt passing the exam can be it can be repeated. At the beginning of the course, more information about the single assessment will be detailed via moodle.
Bibliography
Compulsory reading
Compulsory readings are the basis for the module preparation and evaluation. They will be discussed in class and part of questions in the exams. At the begining of the semester students will be announced if there are any changes in terms of literature to read.
Bloc 1.
Reading 1. Díaz-Cortés, L. M. (2007). Algunas consideraciones sobre el castigo: una perspectiva desde la sociología. En G. Balmaceda (Ed.), Problemas actuales de derecho penal (pp. 187-222). Ediciones Jurídicas de Santiago.
Reading 2. Cid, J. (2009). La justificación del castigo. En La elección del castigo (pp.29-48). Bosch.
Reading 3. Cano, M., Calvo, M. ( 2019) Percepción de la delincuencia, miedo al delito y actitudes punitivas en España. Resultados de una encuesta realizada a estudiantes del Grado en Derecho entre los años 2015 y 2018. InDret, 4, 2-43
Reading 4. Guardiola, J. (2024). Las penas comunitarias en el sistema español: sobre las “alternativas a la prisión. Revista electrónica de ciencia penal y criminología, núm. 26, 2024, pp. 1-41
Reading 5. Cid, J. (2025) El futuro de las alternativas a la prisión en España. InDret, 1, 267-96, doi:10.31009/InDret.2025.i1.08.
Bloc 2.
Reading 6. Varona, D. (2019). La suspensión de la pena de prisión en España. Razones de una historia de éxito. Revista española de investigación criminológica, 17, 1–36.
Reading7a-. Trasovares, M. & Hilterman, E. (2010). ¿Cómo conducimos después de un programa formativo de seguridad vial?. Invesbreu, 50, 1-8.
Reading 7b-. Pérez, Meritxell. & Martínez, Marian (2010). Evaluación de los programas formativos aplicados desde la ejecución penal en la comunidad en delitos de violencia de género. Invesbreu, 49, 1-12.
Reading 8. Zorrilla, Nahia. (2013). La suspensión especial para drogodependientes. ¿existen posibilidades para una mejoraplicación? obstáculos y orientaciones de futuro. Eguzkilore, 27 (121-148).
Reading 9. Contreras, María. (2013). El potencial rehabilitador de la pena de trabajos en beneficio de la comunidad: revisión de la evidencia empírica y análisis de la percepción de una muestra de penados. E. Puentes (Ed). VIII congreso nacional de investigación sobre violencia y delincuencia. Vol. 1 ( pp.243-263). Fundación Paz Ciudadana.
Reading 9b. Cid, J., Meléndez, J., Busquets, C., Navarro, C., Xufré, J., El Kabiri, I., Ramírez, T., Pedrosa, A., Marti, J. (2024). ¿Es el estilo de supervisión relevante para la efectividad de la pena de trabajo en beneficio de la comunidad?. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica 22(1): e874. DOI: 10.46381/reic.v22i1.874
Reading 10. Guimerá, A. (2005). La mediación-reparación en el derecho pena de adultos: un estudio sobre la experiencia piloto de Catalunya. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 3(5), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v3i0.20
Reading 11. Torres, Núria. (2012). Contenido y fines de la pena de localización permanente. Indret: Revista para el Análisis del Derecho, 1, 1-31.
Lectures transversals
Reading 12. Daunis, A. (2016). La ejecución delas penas alternativas a la prisión. La multa, la localización permanente y los Trabajos en beneficio de la comunidad. En Ejecución de penas en España. La reinserción social en retirada, 12 (295 -320). Comares.
Reading 13. Capdevila, M., Ferrer, M., Framis, B., Blanch, M, Garrigós, A., Batlle, A., & Mora, J.(2016). La reincidencia en medidas penales alternativas 2015. Resumen ejecutivo. Departament de Justicia. Centre d’Estudis Jurídics i Formació Especialitzada. http://www.recercat.cat
Reading 14. Blay, Ester (2019). El papel de los Delegados de Ejecución en la ejecución penal en la comunidad ¿gestores o agentes de rehabilitación? InDret, 4, 1-32.
Reading 15. Larrauri, Elena. (2012). La necesidad de un informe social para la decisión y ejecución de las penas comunitarias. Boletín Criminológico, 139, 1-5.
General references
Cid, J. (2009). La elección del castigo. Bosch.
Cid, J y Larrauri, Elena. (1997). Penas alternativas a la prisión. Bosch
Cid, J., Larrauri, Elena. (Cords). (2002). Juecespenales y penas en España. (Aplicación de las penas alternativas a la privación de libertad).Tirant lo blanch.
Capdevila, M., Ferrer, M., Framis, B., Blanch, M, Garrigós, A., Batlle, A. & Mora, J.(2016). La reincidencia en medidas penales alternativas 2015. Informe. Centre d’Estudis Jurídics i Formació Especialitzada. http://justicia.gencat.cat
Larrauri,Elena., Blay, Ester. (2011). Penascomunitarias en Europa. Trotta.
Varona, D. (2023). El sistema punitivo español. Atelier.
Literature in English
Aebi, M., Delgrande, Natalia & Marguet, Y. (2015). Have community sanctions and measures widened the net of the European criminal justice system?. Punishment & Society, 17 (5), 575-597. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474515615694
Blay, Ester. (2006). 'It Could be us': recent transformations in the use of community service as a punishment in Spain. European Journal of Probation, 2 (1), 62-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/206622031000200105
Blay, Ester. (2008). Work for the benefit of the community as a criminal sanction in Spain. Probation Journal, 55 (3), 245-258. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264550508092813
Blay, Ester & Larrauri, Elena. (2016). Community punishment in Spain. A tale of two administrations. In Gwen. Robinson, F. McNeil (Eds). Community punishment. European perspectives (pp. 191-208). Routledge.
Cid, J. (2005). Suspended sentences in Spain: Decarceration and recividism. Probation Journal, 52 (2),169-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264550505052686
Cid, J. (2009). Is imprisonment criminolgenic? A comparative Study of recidivism rates between Prison and suspended prison sanctions. European Journal of Criminology, 6(6), 459-480. DOI:10.1177/1477370809341128
McIvor, Gill., Beyens, Kristel., Blay, Ester i Boone, Miranda. (2010). Community Service in Belgium,the Netherlands, Scotland and Spain: a comparative perspective. European Journal of Probation, 2(1), 82-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/206622031000200106
Stancu O. & Varona, D. (2020). What about judicial punitiveness? A study of homicide convictions in Spain (2000-2013). Criminal Law Forum, 31, 251-275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10609-020-09388-9
Varona, D. & Kempt, S. (2020). Suspended Sentences in Spain: An alternative to prison or a"bargaining chip" in plea negotiations?. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 28, 354-378. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370822111751
Software
There is no specific program for this subject
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (SEM30) Seminaris (30 estudiants per grup) | 11 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM30) Seminaris (30 estudiants per grup) | 12 | English | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM30) Seminaris (30 estudiants per grup) | 13 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |