生物进化论认为，所有生物共同构成了一个严密的有机体，各物种经过激烈竞争和自然选择，并通过遗传和变异等方式不断进化，从而展现出由水生到陆生，从简单到复杂，由低级到高级的变化过程。而社会进化论者、法律进化论者借鉴生物进化的某些规律，提出了社会进化论和法律进化论，指出社会的进步和法律的进步都是一个自然历史过程，是一种必然的发展规律，是不以人的意志为转移的。刑罚进化正是法律进化论的具体观点之一。本文所称的刑罚进化，是指国家对犯罪分子的应对措施在矛盾运动的作用下，缓慢的、渐进的、必然的、具有一定接续性的量变与质变的统一。刑罚进化具有时间漫长、步伐不平衡、节奏渐进、过程曲折以及大方向恒定等特点。尽管各国刑罚从某一时段来看参差不齐、杂乱无章，但从漫长的刑罚发展历程看，各国刑罚的发展变化具有某些惊人的相似性，展现出某些共同的规律。研究刑罚是否进化以及沿着怎样的路径进化，都要以刑罚的历史为依据，并结合哲学、社会学以及其他学科知识，通过抽象概括和逻辑分析，得出科学结论。原始社会时期，真正的刑罚还未出现。但是，有规律的、代代相传的象刑、流放等族内制裁已经出现，这或许就是刑罚的源头。而战争、厮杀等族外相残行为，因为缺乏规律性，而且与其它动物之间的竞争和残害没有太大差别，因此不具有文明性，不足以作为原始社会的“刑罚”。奴隶社会时期，国家开始出现，真正意义上的刑罚开始诞生。四大文明古国的发祥地即北非的尼罗河流域、西亚的两河流域、南亚的印度河流域以及东亚的黄河流域，均在4000多年前出现了刑罚。在其后的历史长河中，上述刑罚制度开始向外域传播扩散，并进行了一定的“遗传”和“变异”，从而得到传承和发展。由于政治状况、历史传统、生活方式等不同，各国先后形成了一些极具特色的法律传统，我们称为法系。其中，中华法系的中国，大陆法系的德国、意大利，英美法系的英国、印度，以及俄罗斯和某些伊斯兰国家的刑罚制度，无论是历史上还是现如今，都对其它国家的刑罚发展变化产生了重要影响，极具代表性。因此，我们首先对上述国家的刑罚发展历史进行了考察。不可否认，刑罚进化的原因是多种多样的，与其泛泛论述刑罚进化的原因，倒不如详细探讨对刑罚进化起决定性作用的原因，也就是刑罚进化的根本原因。刑罚进化的根本原因具有客观性、深刻性以及相对性的特点，因此在确定刑罚进化根本原因的时候，应该遵循原因的强稳定性和强针对性原则。依据这些原则，精神生产力所决定的感刑力是刑罚进化的根本原因。感刑力是指某一法域的人认知刑罚功能、感受刑罚强度的客观能力。感刑力具有群体性、强针对性、物质性和累积性的特点。感刑力决定刑罚，刑罚在一定程度上又反作用于感刑力。刑罚与感刑力所决定的刑罚点之间“平衡——不平衡——再平衡……”的矛盾运动，是刑罚进化的动力机制。通过考察刑罚进化历史以及探究刑罚变化的根本原因，笔者总结刑罚进化的规律是：第一，刑量方面。刑罚的量与政权的控制力度呈现一定的正比关系。总体而言，人类社会对人的束缚应该是越来越小的，因此刑罚的量总体上是不断趋缓的。从社会发展历史看，政权控制的重点从奴隶社会的人身、封建社会的土地转为资本主义社会的资本，未来真正的社会主义社会政权控制重点应该是社会资格，到共产主义社会控制的重点应该是人的精神。而人的自由在上述社会各个时期是不断被解放的，因此刑罚也应该随着社会的进步而逐渐趋缓。第二，刑种方面。刑罚的种类都经历了先逐渐增多，然后慢慢减少的变化过程，这是刑罚种类变化的总趋势。就某一具体刑种而言，每一刑罚都会沿着产生、发展、繁荣、衰退、消亡的既定轨迹进化。第三，刑罚结构方面。世界上大多数国家包括中国的刑罚结构重心经历了从以死刑、肉刑为主，到以劳役刑为主，再到以自由刑为主的转变过程，未来必将发展为以资格刑、精神惩罚为重心的刑罚结构。但有一些西方国家的刑罚结构重心，在最初并不是以死刑和肉刑为主，而是以比较轻缓的财产刑为主，这一点颇为独特。第四，刑罚客体方面。刑罚客体是指刑罚所剥夺的犯罪人的权益。主要刑罚客体的进化规律是：从具体到抽象、从有形到无形；从体外到体内、从身体到灵魂；从直接到间接、从物质到精神。通过对刑罚历史和现状的考察，并结合刑罚进化的规律，笔者认为，刑罚的轻缓化和人道化是刑罚发展的总趋势。在此基础上，笔者预测了未来刑罚种类的进化路径：第一，死刑从当今的相对废止，走向绝对废止；第二，自由刑尽管在当今的某些国家仍然占据主体地位，但在未来，各国将会对剥夺自由的刑罚进行严格限制，最终也会被废止。具体表现为，剥夺自由的犯罪人待遇将越来越人性化、轻缓化，可判处的最长自由刑期限将逐渐缩短，短期自由刑将会逐步被开放式处遇所代替。剥夺自由的刑罚，随着人类的文明和进步，最后将会寿终正寝。第三，伴随着自由刑的萎缩与废止，财产刑开始繁荣。财产刑在一定程度上代替了短期自由刑，并发挥了相应的惩罚功能。而且财产刑的主体地位，在未来的一段时间内，将会逐渐上升，特别是随着市场经济影响的日益扩大。但是，每一类刑罚都有其发展变化的规律。当人类社会从物质社会向精神社会转变的时候，财产类刑罚将慢慢衰落。第四，伴随着自由刑、财产刑的衰落，社区刑罚开始慢慢建立并且繁荣。本文所称的社区刑罚与今天的社区矫正是不同的，它是一种专门的刑罚而不是自由刑的执行方式。具体来说，社区刑罚是指人民法院针对犯罪人所判决的、在社区里进行惩罚和矫正犯罪人的一种刑罚方式。社区刑罚本质是刑罚，具有惩罚性，但是施加惩罚的主要目的偏重于教育和改造罪犯。在未来社会中，监控技术越来越高，对犯罪人犯罪概率预测的技术也越来越强，因此实行社区刑罚足以对犯罪人进行控制和惩罚，而且与自由刑相比，能够更好地贯彻刑罚个别化原则。另外，信息化社会提升了个人声誉在社会中的地位，加之行刑社会化思潮的影响，社区刑罚必然会在某个时间段里占据刑罚体系的主体地位。第五，随着人类步入精神社会，荣辱刑和资格刑在未来社会中也会逐渐繁荣起来。荣辱刑主要包括荣誉刑和耻辱刑；资格刑的范围比现在要大的多，比如社会保障权、迁徙权、国籍权、从事某种特定职业或者活动的权利等，都可以考虑成为资格刑的客体，只不过在适用的犯罪方面，还要具体斟酌。刑罚进化论在理论和实践方面都产生了重大影响，本文仅列举主要方面。第一，对刑罚本质理论的影响。以进化论为视角，刑罚的本质可以分为宏观刑罚的本质和微观刑罚的本质。宏观刑罚的本质是严厉的国家惩罚性，微观刑罚的本质是对受刑人权利的剥夺。第二，对刑罚体系的影响。刑罚进化论为刑罚的轻缓化以及新的刑罚种类的创制提供了理论依据。具体来说，为死刑废除提供了强大的理论基础，为控制监禁刑进行了思想启蒙，是繁荣罚金刑的前进号角，同时也开创了社区刑、资格刑、荣辱刑等新的、具体刑罚种类。第三，对刑事立法政策的影响。基于刑罚进化论，在犯罪圈划定方面，就中国目前立法而言应该坚持犯罪化和非犯罪化双向政策，以犯罪化为主，在法制健全的国家以及未来的中国，仍然坚持双向政策，但应该以非犯罪化为主；在刑事诉讼立法方面，应该吸收非刑事诉讼的某些合理内核和原则；刑罚执行立法方面，应该坚持刑罚执行人道化原则。第四，对刑罚改革的影响。依据刑罚进化的特点，刑罚改革应该采取渐进式模式而非激进式模式；判断刑罚改革成败的标准是，看改革是否有利于群众感刑力的提升，刑罚改革过程中的曲折和反复不代表改革失败，应予以理性看待；刑罚进化论激发了改革者的主动性、增强了改革者必胜的信念，认为刑罚进化论会导致“改革惰性思维”的观点是对刑罚进化论的误解。第五，精神文明与刑罚进步的关系方面。刑罚进化论支持学术界扩大生产力概念的观点，并将精神生产力纳入生产力范畴，提出了感刑力概念，进一步强化了精神生产在研究刑罚变迁中的地位和作用。

According to the theory of evolution of life, all living together form a tight organism. Each species have continually developed and progressed, through intense competition and natural selection, and through the inheritance and variation. The living was showing from aquatic to terrestrial, from simple to complex, from elementary to advanced process. Then, social evolutionists, legal evolutionists Learned from certain laws of evolution of life, proposed the theory of evolution of society and law, pointed out that the progress of the society and the progress of law is a natural historical process, is a kind of inevitable development laws, is not independent of man's will. Evolution of penalty is one specific point of the law evolution theory. The evolution of penalty referred in this article, means that durative unity of quantitative change and qualitative change about the measures which the country applies to the criminals .The change happened under the contradiction movement function, and it is slow, gradual, inevitable. About the features of evolution of penalty，the time is long, the pace is imbalance, the rhythm is gradually, the process is tortuous, and the direction is constant etc. Despite all the punishment from a time point, be uneven, disorganized, but a long way from the view of the development of penal punishment, development has some striking similarities, showing some common law.When we study on evolution of penalty and the evolution along what kind of path, we should base on the history of the penalty, combine with philosophy, sociology, and other aspects of knowledge, through abstraction and logical analysis, to draw scientific conclusions. Primitive society, the real penalty is yet to come. However, there are laws, passed on from generation to generation like torture, exile and other family sanctions have emerged, which perhaps is the source of the penalty. War, fight, and other family outside the fratricidal behavior, because of the lack of regularity, and competition with other animals and mutilation is not much difference, so not civilized enough to "punishment" as a primitive society. Slave Society, the state began to appear, penalty start in the true sense of the birth of. The birthplace of the four ancient civilizations, namely the Nile Basin, North Africa, Western Asia, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley in South Asia and East Asia's Yellow River Basin, where the penalties appeared more than 4,000 years ago. Subsequent long history, the penal system began outside the domain spread diffusion, and the "genetic" and "variation" to the heritage and development. Due to differences in political conditions, historical traditions, lifestyle, countries have formed some very unique legal tradition, we refer to as the legal systems. Among them, Chinese legal system in China, Civil law of Germany and Italy, the Anglo-American law system of Britain and India, Russia and some Islamic countries, the penalties in which are highly representative, either in history or now, have important influence on the penalty for all other countries. Therefore, we first investigate history of penalty about these countries.Admittedly, there are a variety of reasons for evolution of penalty, its general treatise penal evolution reasons, rather than detailed discussion on the evolution of punishment plays a decisive role in reason, also is the fundamental cause of the evolution of punishment. The underlying cause of evolutionary has objectivity, profound and relative characteristics, therefore the determination of penal evolution basic reason, should be guided by reason of the high stability and strong pertinence principle. According to these principles, the sense of criminal force which is decided by spirit productivity is the fundamental cause of the evolution. The sense of criminal force refers to an objective ability that human in a legal area cognize function of penalty and feel punishment strength. The sense of criminal force has collective characteristics, strong pertinence, material and accumulation characteristics. The sense of criminal force decides penalty, also penalty to some extent reverse effects on the sense of criminal force. The contradictory motion between the penalty and The amount of penalty decided by the sense of criminal force, which shows "balance - unbalance -rebalance…….", is the dynamic mechanism of the evolution.Through the investigation of the history and current situation of punishment, the author summarizes the evolution of punishment rule is: first, the amount of penalty. The penalty amount and the power control shows a certain proportional relation. Overall, the human society of human bondage is more and more small, therefore the penalty amount is generally constant delay. From the social development history looks, power control key from the slave society the person, feudal society land into capitalist society capital, real future socialist regime control should be focused on the social qualification, to Communist society control should be the focus of the human spirit. And human freedom in the society each period is constantly being liberated, the penalty should also along with the progress of the society and gradually hasten delay. In second, the criminal aspects. Types of punishment have experienced first increases gradually, and then slowly reduce, this is a kind of penalty of the general trend. In one specific kind of punishment, each punishment will be along generation, development, prosperity, recession, the demise of the established trajectory evolution. In third, the penalty structure. Most of the countries in the world including China ,penalty structure has experienced from the death penalty, corporal penalty, to imprisonment at hard labor to freedom of criminal transformation process, the future is bound to the development of the qualification penalty, mental punishment for the center of gravity of the penalty structure. But some western countries penalty structure center of gravity, the first not to capital punishment and corporal punishment, but with relatively light corrosion property punishment, this point is unique. In fourth, the penalty of object. The object is to point penalty deprive criminal human rights. The law of the main object of punishment evolution: from the concrete to the abstract, from tangible to intangible; from in vitro to in vivo, from body to soul; from direct to indirect, from matter to spirit. Based on the history and present situation of the study of penalty, combined the law of the penal evolution,the author thinks, the mitigation of penalty and humanization of penalty is the general trend of development. On this basis, the author forecasts the future path of evolution of the penalty types: first, the death penalty is relatively abolished now, to be absolutely abolished in the future; second, freedom punishment although in some of today's country still holds the dominant position, but in the future, countries will have on the punishment of deprivation of Liberty restrictions, will eventually be abolished. For specific performance, the denial of freedom of criminal treatment will be more humane, mitigation, can be sentenced to the longest period of Liberty Penalty will gradually shorten, short-term free punishment will gradually be replaced by the opening management. Punishment of deprivation of liberty, along with the human civilization and progress, and will eventually die in one's bed. In third, accompanied by a free sentence atrophy , abolition of property penalty will boom. Property penalty to a certain extent instead of short-term free punishment, and play a corresponding penalty function. The main body position of property penalty, in the future, will be gradually increased, especially with the increasing impact of market economy. However, every kind of penalty has its development and changes in the law. When human society is from the material world to spiritual community, the property penalty will slowly fading. In fourth, accompanied by the fading of freedom penalty and property penalty, community penalty will be slowly built and prosperous. In this paper, called community penalty and today's community correction is different, it is a kind of special penalty instead of the execution of punishment against freedom way. Specifically, community penalty is a kind of penalty which is wrote in the criminal judgment by the people's court, and the offenders are punished and educated in the community. Punishment is the essence of community penalty, it has punitive, but the main purpose of punishment focuses on the education and reformation of criminals. In the future society, monitoring technology is more and more high, the crime probability forecasting technology is more and more strong, so the implementation of community penalty to crime control and punishment, and punishment against freedom compared with, to better carry out the principle of individualization of penalty. In addition, personal reputation will be enhanced in the information society, and the execution of social ideological trend influence, community penalty must at some period of time occupied the main body position of penalty system. In fifth, along with the human society into the spirit, honor penalty and qualification penalty in the society in the future will gradually flourishing. Concept of honor and disgrace mainly includes the honor penalty and shame penalty. Qualification penalty range than the now much larger, such as the right to social security, migrating right, the right to a nationality, occupation or activity in certain rights, can be considered as the object of punishment, but in the application of crime, we should consider Seriously.There are many influences in both the theory and the practice about the evolution of penalty. This article just lists the main aspects. First, effect about the theory of nature of penalty. Based on evolutionary perspective, the essence of penalty can be divided into the macroscopic and microcosmic the essence of penalty. Macroscopic the essence of penalty is harsh punitive, microcosmic the essence of penalty is the punishment of deprivation of rights. In second, effect about the penalty system. Theory of penal evolution for the mitigation of penalty and penalty contrive provides theory basis. Specifically, for the abolition of the death penalty provides strong theoretical basis, for the control of imprisonment provides enlightenment, is prosperous fine progress bugle, and also create a community penalty, qualification penalty, honor and disgrace penalty , and other new, specific types of penalties. In third, the criminal legislation policy implications. Based on the theory of penal evolution, in the crime circle to delineate aspects, China's current legislation should adhere to the criminalization and decriminalization in two-way policy, the criminalization is main policy. In legal system perfect country and the future of China, still insist on two-way policy, but should be non - crime; criminal proceedings in the Legislative Council, should absorb the non criminal procedure and some reasonable core and principle; the execution of punishment legislation, should adhere to the principle of punishment execution humanitarianism. In fourth, the effect to the penalty reform. On the basis of the characteristics of evolution of penalty, penalty reform should adopt progressive model rather than the radical mode; judgment penalty reform success or failure criterion is to see whether the reform is helpful for people to improve the capacity of sense of penalty, penalty reform process of the twists and turns do not represent the failure of reform, should be rational; theory of penal evolution Inspire reformers initiative, enhance the reformers belief, thought theory of penal evolution will have a " reform the inert thinking" view is on the theory of penal evolution misunderstanding. Fifth, the relationship between spiritual civilization and progress of penalty. Theory of penal evolution in support of academic circles and expand productivity concepts, and spiritual productivity into productivity category, put forward the concept of the sense of criminal force, to further strengthen the spiritual production in the research of penalty change in an important position and role.