Summary

An important tendency of socialisation of criminal law is evident in the evolution of criminal law. This tendency does not only affect penal theories but the whole criminal law, including the theory related to the concept of crime. The evolution of criminal law shows that classical penal theories cannot form a generally recognised basis for the justification of state penal law.
The author introduces the theory of positive general prevention explaining the sources, development and main features of the theory and its two main directions named after W. Hassemer and G. Jakobs. The author examines the theory developed by W. Hassemer which focuses on positive general prevention as a regulatory idea and the theory of G. Jakobs the key word of which is introduction of normative supervision, and gives a brief overview of criticism of the theories.
In addition to the above-mentioned penal theories, the author also scrutinises recent developments in criminal policy, focusing on ubiquity prevention and communitarianism and the so-called minor criminal policy. After giving a general characterisation of the above-mentioned directions, the author also analyses the reasons for the rise thereof and related penal policy and theoretical issues. The article reproduces a table prepared by A. Walter which outlines penal theories and criminal political tendencies of the recent decades.