Abstract

Of all branches of law, the branch that closely concern or touches a person in his daily life is criminal law. Crime could also be defining as the commission of acts prohibited by penal law and criminals as persons who commit such acts. The penalisation system is an integral part of criminal justice and for maintaining Social Security. The progress of civilization has resulted within the change within the theory, technique and motive of penalisation. Punishment may be used as a way of reducing the incidence of criminal behaviour either by deterring the potential offenders or by disabling and preventing them from repeating the offence of by reforming them into law-abiding citizens. Thus, theories of punishment comprise of policies concerning handling of crime and criminals. They're classified into four types. All these aren't reciprocally exclusive and each of them plays a very important role in handling potential offenders.The theories of punishment are Retributive theory, Deterrent theory, Preventive theory, Reformative theory. This write up is regarding reformative theory and critically analysing the status in India.

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