Some methodological issues of evaluating the effectiveness of the preventive impact of criminal punishments

Introduction: evaluation of the effectiveness of the preventive impact of criminal punishment is a pressing scientific problem. Its solution would reduce the material and social costs associated with the execution of criminal punishments, improve the quality of crime prevention and the level of citizens' protection from socially dangerous infringements. However, the problem of the effectiveness of punishment is not sufficiently developed in theory. Up to the present moment, there is no uniform understanding of the concept ‘effectiveness of criminal punishment', there is no unity regarding the criteria and methods of its assessment. Purpose: to determine the need to study the effectiveness of the preventive impact of criminal punishment on crime; to develop the concept ‘effectiveness of punishment', conduct a comparative analysis of that with the concepts ‘effectiveness of criminal law, criminal law norms, judicial practice, execution of punishment'; to identify the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of criminal punishment and offer the authors' model of such an evaluation which would include certain interrelated steps. Methods: the methodological framework of the study is based on a set of methods of scientific cognition, including general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction), special (statistical, concrete sociological (questioning of the convicts, analysis of criminal case files, expert survey) and other methods. Results: the authors state that the effectiveness of criminal punishment means its capability to effectively achieve the goals of punishment proclaimed by the legislator in specific socio-economic conditions; it can be considered as an integral indicator reflecting the effectiveness of the criminal law impact in general; the only efficient way to study the preventive impact of criminal punishment is to analyze the preventive effect of all penalties applicable to specific crimes as a whole. Conclusions: methods of assessing the effectiveness of punishments currently proposed in the theory of criminal law and criminology, including questioning of prisoners or other citizens, are not appropriate means for solving this scientific task. Such information can only play an orienting role for researchers. As the basic criteria of the effectiveness of criminal punishment, such indicators of crime can be used as its dynamics and the dynamics of recidivism. As for additional criteria, these might include the level of crime in certain social groups; the level of recidivism among convicts belonging to different social groups; the dynamics of the number of convicts, including those who committed crimes recurrently.