The first office was set up by the old prison of seventeenth-century New Prisons Via Giulia, built by Pope Innocent X, which was the flagship of the prison policy of the Papal States.

The museum was divided into several sections: section of the crime (with exhibits related to various types of crimes, from forgery to murder) - state activities against criminals (with the representation of investigative techniques) - Execution of sentences and security measures (defined objects from prison in a suggestive manner "malice prison", or subterfuge invented by prisoners to conceal weapons, to escape, to perform acts of self-harm), and finally a section containing historical notices and edicts, instruments of torture and execution.

In 1968, the Criminal Museum was dismantled to allocate the premises of the New Prisons to another use, and since 1975 is housed in the Palace of the Banner, a building dating back to 1827, built by Pope Leo XII and allocated to the house of correction of underage youth from Clementine prison located at the Apostolic Hospice of San Michele.

The Criminology Museum is a valuable historical evidence on punitive systems of the past and a teaching tool for schools and educational institutions.