Historians of modern penality have identified several major and minor transformation points since the 18th century. With regard to tracking the recividist concept, this history is divided into three relatively stable regimes through which the power to punish has been exercised by modernizing societies over time: (1) Jacksonian penality--emphasis on penitentiaries; (2) progressive penality--emphasis on pathological types, including juvenile delinquents, inebriates, defectives, and the insane; and (3) new penality--emphasis on incapacitating dangerous offenders and on moving away from explicit reliance on normalization. The place of recidivists in these different phases of penality is discussed in terms of the locus of the individual, criminology's claims of expertise, and what each form of penality offers government. The recent rash of laws mandating lengthy imprisonment sentences for recidivists under the "three strikes" slogan is cited as an example of criminology's ambivalent relationship to penal policy. 50 references and 13 notes