Smart Management of Criminal Records with a Hybrid Penological Approach

Abstract

The management of criminal records within the Iranian legal system, despite reform-oriented approaches reflected in higher-level policy documents, has become one of the principal obstacles to the realization of criminal justice and the prevention of recidivism. Employing a descriptive–analytical method and grounded in labeling theory, this study examines the pathology of the gap between “law in the books” and “law in action.” The central issue concerns analyzing the causes underlying the inefficiency of Articles 25 and 26 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013) in eliminating the adverse consequences of criminal records, as well as investigating the process through which “legal punishment” transforms into “permanent social exclusion.” The findings indicate that the duality between “legal rehabilitation” and the perpetual retention of information within law-enforcement databases, combined with indiscriminate occupational restrictions and employers’ risk-averse practices, has resulted in the blockage of reintegration pathways and the emergence of “secondary deviance” among convicted individuals. In effect, the criminal justice system, by preserving what may be described as an institutional “memory of dangerousness,” unintentionally contributes to the reproduction of criminal cycles. To overcome this structural impasse, the present article proposes a model of “hybrid penology,” grounded in a transition from “mechanical exclusion” toward “intelligent risk management.” Key policy solutions include the legal recognition of the right to be forgotten, the specialization and proportionalization of social disabilities, and the smart modernization of the criminal record system based on an access-level classification model. The study concludes that sustainable security lies not in the exclusion of offenders but in their reintegration through data-driven mechanisms and post-penal support measures.