Specific Deterrence

641 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Criminal justice theory of deterrence

The criminal and civil law includes different methods of resolving disputes to provide protection for individuals and their rights. It is highly effective considering it ensures people are protected from crimes, offences or disputes. As such, the laws of society will be explored.

Australia's current legal system does not acknowledge or identify individuals right due to the present protection of individual rights from Australia's Constitution, common law and legislation, which have been established through the Commonwealth or State Parliaments, contrasting to the US system with a Bill of Rights. Individuals have the right to vote, the right to a trial, freedom of religion and the forbidding of discrimination. Additionally, in relation to criminal …show more content…

It does this by discouraging individuals from committing crimes through the deterrence of punishments that range from monetary fines to imprisonment. The two types of deterrence, general and specific, protect individuals and society as a whole from the repercussions of crime by laws that state the punitive consequences of criminal activity. A general deterrence is when the public learns of an individual punishment due to offences committed, resulting in the public’s reluctance to commit crime, because of the consequences of legal punishment. Specific deterrence refers to the individual defendant. When an individual learn of their punishment from a crime, they are less likely to commit another crime because of the fear of a similar punishment. For example, Brandon Osborn, who shot his partner in North-western Victoria last year was initially sentenced to nine years in jail. If it wasn't for the fact of his early guilty plea and his show of remorse and his potential for rehabilitation, the sentence would have been longer as he would have been charged with murder instead of manslaughter and a firearm offence. Hence, a specific deterrent from the fear of punishment gave protection to society from this individual who violated a law which is designed to harshly punish such

Show More
Related

  • The Importance Of Sentencing In Canada

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    Specific deterrence applies specifically to individual offenders who have been previously sentenced. The severity of the punishment for an offence should keep the specific one individual from reoffending (Siegel et al, 2013, p.83). This focuses on individuals.

    Read More

  • Essay On Why Australia Should Have Bill Of Rights

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bill of Rights was first originated from England, where it asserts for constitutional protection for individuals, and lists different types of prohibitions on government power (Bill of rights institute, 2016). The action of how Australia became a Federation, it involved complicated constitutional conventions, and how the constitutional founders addressed the complications of enacting a Bill of Rights, they decided not to enact it. McClelland (2002, pg. 138) describes how there were proposals that were rejected to incorporate fundamental rights in Australia’s constitution. Australians basic right were protected by common law, however instead, it was a mixture of

    Read More

  • The Investigation of Ted Bundy’s Murdering Rampage

    2890 Words  | 6 Pages

    Civil law administers associations among individuals and a party who is wounded economically or physically by another individual or group can claim a charge in opposition to that unit. Conversely, criminal laws function below the conjecture that the society rather than a person, has been wronged by the defendant’s proce...

    Read More

  • How Does The Fear Of Crime Influence Criminal Justice

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    This paper will be focusing on the courts as the specific sub-system in the criminal justice system. As said in the book the court system is responsible for charging criminal suspects, carrying out trials, and sentencing a person convicted of a crime. The fear of crime influences criminal justice policies in the court system. One way it does this is with the courts sentencing. Courts are able to give out severe punishments as a method of deterrence. This specific type of deterrence would be general deterrence. The book says that general deterrence theory should work if the punishment is clear, severe, and done swiftly. According to this theory, crime rate should drop because people will fear the punishment. The other way fear of crime influences

    Read More

  • The Role of Marginal Deterrence and Its Practical Application

    2271 Words  | 5 Pages

    The 2002 crime figures for England and Wales comprised of two separate reports, brought together for the first time: (i) Crime statistics recorded by constabularies and (ii) The British Crime Survey (BCS), based on 33,000 interviews. The BCS is regarded as a more reliable measure of actual levels of crime because it includes experiences of crime that go unreported. The British crime survey of 2002 revealed:

    Read More

  • Three Components Of Deterrence Theory Of Crime

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    The former focuses on preventing recidivism while the latter focuses on stopping would-be offenders from committing crime. Although going to jail prevents some people from committing future crimes, specific deterrence does not acknowledge the role jail can have on individuals continuing to offend. Once an individual has been in jail, depending on their age, race, or ethnicity, they may be labeled as miscreants or thugs. When this label has been applied to an individual, he or she may continue to engage in deviant or criminal behavior because that is what is expected from him or her. Specific deterrence also does not account for people becoming accustomed to prison life. If someone has been incarcerated for an extended period of time, they may experience a culture shock when they leave prison and try to reenter the community. This may cause an individual to offend in order to return to their familiar life in

    Read More

  • The Canadian Criminal Justice System

    1961 Words  | 4 Pages

    In every society around the world, the law is affecting everyone since it shapes the behavior and sense of right and wrong for every citizen in society. Laws are meant to control a society’s behavior by outlining the accepted forms of conduct. The law is designed as a neutral aspect existent to solve society’s problems, a system specially designed to provide people with peace and order. The legal system runs more efficiently when people understand the laws they are intended to follow along with their legal rights and responsibilities.

    Read More

  • The Australian Legal System

    1294 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Australian Legal System has a rich and detailed history dating from 1066. Law is made in Parliament. We have four sources of law and three courts with different jurisdictions that interpret the law when giving out justice. Important doctrines act as the corner-stones of our legal system. There is a procedure in the courts for making appeals. Separation of powers exists between officials in the courts, the parliament and the Executive. Everyone in Australia is treated equally under the Rule of Law, no matter their office or status. The Law is always changing as society changes, but it can never be perfect and cannot please everyone.

    Read More

  • Punishment In Australia Essay

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are several types of punishment that can be inflicted upon an offender including, fines, community sanctions and imprisonment (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007). Punishment is described as a sanction which inflicts a certain amount of pain and loss on the offender, used for payback and deter (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007; Carlsmith, Darley, & Robinson, 2002). There are three ways society justifies punishing offenders, through the

    Read More

  • Equal Pay In Australia Essay

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people are often surprised to hear that Australia does not have a national Bill of Rights. Although two Australian states have adopted their own state based human rights laws. Although these laws are not specifically women’s rights laws, but these laws generally cover human rights that are similar to Gender equality. Both states outline the rights to non-discrimination and equality.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Retribution

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    Deterrence – is connected to punishment where it is a way to let a person who has committed a crime know and to let the rest of society or those looking to commit a crime know it will not be tolerated or accepted and there is the possibility of some form of punishment. (Stojkovic and Lovell 2013) If a person or society sees what can happen if they commit a crime by seeing what happens to others then they are more likely to obey the laws and live an honest lifestyle.

    Read More

  • Sentencing Theory

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    To being with, sentencing has to be fair and cannot discriminate on factors of race, gender. Or religion. Deterrence is the first rule of sentencing as it is based on a principle that punishment would prevent the offender from recommitting the offense another time. The theory behind deterrence is the idea

    Read More

  • Justifications for Punishment in Modern Society

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Deterrence suggests that people are “deterred” from a crime by the threat of punishment. In other words, people won’t commit a crime if the ramifications that were to follow are so severe. Deterrence comes in two flavors, specific and general. Specific deterrence refers to the “threat of punishment” being directly aimed towards a particular individual who has already committed the crime through actually experiencing the punishment first hand. An example of this may be, being convicted of a crime and as a result being sentenced to so many years in jail or prison. However, in order for it to be successful, the “previously ...

    Read More

  • Roles And Functions Of Law In Business And Society

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    Criminal and Civil Law – Criminal law is the law through which public commitment of crimes are prosecuted by governing bodies, whereas civil law is the law through which private parties may bring lawsuits against one another for real or imagined wrongdoings. E.g. criminal law would deal with the prosecution of a crime such as one person hitting another with their car, and civil law would deal with the lawsuit, as the person hit would sue the driver of the car for monetary compensation.

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Essay: Benefits of the Death Penalty

    2127 Words  | 5 Pages

    Deterrence means to punish somebody as an example and to create fear in other people for the punishment. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any sane person. Ernest van den Haag, in his article "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty" mentions, "One abstains from dangerous acts because of vague, inchoate, habitual and, above all, preconscious fears" (193). Everybody fears death, even animals. Most criminals would think twice if they knew their own lives were at stake. Although there is no statistical evidence that death penalty deters crime, but we have to agree that most of us fear death. Suppose there is no death penalty in a state and life imprisonment without parole is the maximum punishment. What is stopping a prisoner who is facing a life imprisonment without parole to commit another murder in the prison? According to Paul Van Slambrouck, " Assaults in prisons all over US, both against fellow inmates and against staff, have more than doubled in the past decade, according to statistics gathered by the Criminal Justice Institute in Middletown, Connecticut" (Christian Science Monitor, Internet).

    Read More

More about Specific Deterrence

Open Document