Purposes and tasks

The mission of the European Centre for Penological Studies is to develop, integrate and promote interdisciplinary knowledge about:

criminal punishment and other penal sanctions;
other forms of public coercion and violent interventions (in particular in relations to juveniles);
the limits of the power to punish and the use of extra-legal political repression means, military actions and mafia-like political activities
The Centre will deliver opinions based on knowledge on the ideas which shape reasonable and humanitarian criminal and penitentiary policy which respects the need for order, security and justice and requires the recognition of dignity of every person. It will fulfill this task in reliance on the resources from various scientific disciplines, in the framework of culturally integrated studies, to make a synthetic account of research findings. The Center will act as a platform for the exchange of views among researchers from a wide array of disciplines, and namely criminal law, philosophy, cultural anthropology, sociology, cultural, performance and literary studies, pedagogics, history, psychology, political sciences and criminology. These various disciplines will deliver inputs about sociocultural, philosophical, constitutional, political, legal (in criminal law), economic and criminological factors and conditions underpinning the development of criminal and penitentiary policy.

logo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego


logo Instytutu Profilaktyki Społecznej i Resocjalizacji


logo Europejskiego Ośrodka Studiów Penologicznych
20 Podchorążych Street, 00-721 Warsaw, Poland | phone: (+48) (22) 553 07 46 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

© 2021 European Centre for Penological Studies