The Pros And Cons Of Punishment

829 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Punishment in modern society

Punishment is an authoritative imposition that is done to a person that results in their behavior that was deemed wrong by a group or an individual person. Punishment can come in many different forms; for example the person who committed a crime could get be punished as in jail time, probation, or even witness protection. Punishment to some people could be harsh and to others it could be easy. In other people’s eyes the people who are getting punished are not getting enough punishment or getting too much punishment.
When we come to Rehabilitation it is to restore a useful life. This is by therapy or an institution. Rehabilitation is a program that is created to prevent habitual offending. Rehabilitation is a program that wants to help a criminal get into the normal state of mind and not punish them for an action that they may have caused. Rehabilitation is a program that helps a criminal change and become an outstanding citizen that follows the rules instead of the criminal getting out of jail and going out and committing another crime.
When I came to write this essay I asked a few people to see to get a better understanding about this topic. The first person I asked told me the criminal usually has a bad back ground and most times does a crime because of psychological issues. Rehabilitation will help the criminal to get rid of the issues and will become a better person and a more useful person in life, and have a successful life and future and will work and be someone good in the community. Another person who I asked told me that some kids do criminal things such as stealing and drugs. The reason for this is that studies show that most kids who steal because of poor living or parents who do not give their kids money a...

... middle of paper ...

... rehabilitation the debates will go on for years and the debate will never end.
In conclusion public views of punishment for crimes have changed over the centuries. Yet generally over time most societies have moved from the extraction of personal or family justice vengeful acts such as blood feuds or the Practice of "an eye for an eye “toward formal system based on written codes and orderly process. Jails and prisons have changed from being holding places where prisoners awaited to deportation, maiming, whippings, beatings, or execution. Confinement itself has become the punishment. In the United States today, as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court, punishment has at least four justifications: deterrence, societal retribution, rehabilitation, and incapacitation the last category intended to protect society by permanently incarcerating those who cannot be reformed.

Show More
Related

  • The Importance Of Sentencing In Canada

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rehabilitation is another objective of sentencing. Rehabilitation is different from incapacitation and deterrence in that it does not always involve getting put behind bars. An offender may receive a sentence of rehabilitation where they are released back into society to complete a community based sentence (Goff, 2014 p.296).

    Read More

  • Varying Rationales and Ethical Frameworks for Punishment

    2126 Words  | 5 Pages

    What would the criminal justice system be without punishment? Perhaps, the criminal justice system would not serve a function or cease to exist. Punishment is one of the main facets of the criminal justice system. It holds such significance that it even reflects the beliefs and values of a particular society. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) once said “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” (Pollock, 2010: 315). Punishment has been around since the beginning of civilization. With its rich history, the concept of punishment has been analyzed by some of the most renowned theorists, some of which include Jeremy Bentham, Cesare Beccaria, Adolphe Quetelet and André-Michel Guerry (Pollock, 2010: 318). Once found guilty of an offense the type of punishment must be determined. There are many different rationales used to answer why it is necessary to inflict punishment. Rationales for punishment include retribution, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. To better understand these rationales ethical systems such as utilitarianism, ethical formalism and ethics of care can be used. The general public should be knowledgeable about punishment, even more so should professionals in the criminal justice field because they are directly linked to it in some way.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Mandatory Sentencing

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mandatory sentencing refers to the practice of parliament setting a fixed penalty for the commission of a criminal offence. Mandatory sentencing was mainly introduced in Australia to: prevent crime, to incapacitate the offenders, to deter offenders so they don’t offend again, to create a stronger retribution and to eliminate inconsistency. There is a firm belief that the imposition of Mandatory sentencing for an offence will have a deterrent effect on the individual and will send a forcible message to the offenders. Those in favour argue that it will bring consistency in sentencing and conciliate public concern about crime and punishment.

    Read More

  • Retribution Model Of Punishment Essay

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    The judicial system is based off the norms and values that individuals are held to within society. When a person is found guilty of committing a criminal act, there must be a model that serves as the basis of what appropriate punishment should be applied. These models of punishment are often based off of ethical theories and include retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restoration. The retribution model of punishment views the offender as responsible for their actions and as such, the punishment should fit the crime (Mackie, 1982). Incapacitation is a form of punishment that removes an offender from society. This model protects

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Mentally Ill Offenders

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mentally ill offenders face many challenges while being incarcerated and after being released. Rehabilitation is effective on mentally ill offenders by reducing their symptoms of distress and improving their behavior.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Incarceration And Rehabilitation

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Criminal Justice system was established to achieve justice. Incarceration and rehabilitation are two operations our government practices to achieve justice over criminal behavior. Incarceration is the punishment for infraction of the law and in result being confined in prison. It is more popular than rehabilitation because it associates with a desire for retribution. However, retribution is different than punishment. Rehabilitation, on the other hand is the act of restoring the destruction caused by a crime rather than simply punishing offenders. This may be the least popular out of the two and seen as “soft on crime” however it is the only way to heal ruptured communities and obtain justice instead of punishing and dispatching criminals

    Read More

  • Is Parole Ineffective of Effective in Curbing Recidivism?

    2253 Words  | 5 Pages

    All the laws, which concern with the administration of justice in cases where an individual has been accused of a crime, always begin with the initial investigation of the crime and end either with imposition of punishment or with the unconditional release of the person. Most of the time it is the duty of the members of constituted authorities to inflict the punishment. Thus it can be said that almost all of the punishments are an act of self-defense and an act of defending the community against different types of offences. According to Professor Hart “the ultimate justification of any punishment is not that it is deterrent but that it is the emphatic denunciation by the community of a crime” (Hart P.65). Whenever the punishments are inflicted having rationale and humane factor in mind and not motivated by our punitive passions and pleasures then it can be justified otherwise it is nothing but a brutal act of terrorism. Prison System: It has often been argued that the criminals and convicted prisoners are being set free while the law-abiding citizens are starving. Some people are strongly opposed the present prison and parole system and said that prisoners are not given any chance for parole. Prisons must provide the following results: Keep dangerous criminals off the street Create a deterrent for creating a crime The deterrent for creating a crime can be justified in the following four types Retribution: according to this type, the goal of prison is to give people, who commit a crime, what they deserved Deterrence: in this type of justification, the goal of punishment is to prevent certain type of conduct Reform: reform type describes that crime is a disease and so the goal of punishment is to heal people Incapacitation: the...

    Read More

  • First 48 Thesis

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    In many cases, the culprit has been in and out of rehabilitation centers and or jail. These facilities have a common goal. Which is to correct those whom are

    Read More

  • Canada Should Focus More on Rehabilitation and Less on Retribution

    3232 Words  | 7 Pages

    Society has long since operated on a system of reward and punishment. That is, when good deeds are done or a person behaves in a desired way they SP are rewarded, or conversely punished when behaviour does not meet the societal norms. Those who defy these norms and commit crime are often punished by organized governmental justice systems through the use of penitentiaries, where prisoners carry out their sentences. The main goals of sentencing include deterrence, safety of the public, retribution, rehabilitation, punishment and respect for the law (Government of Canada, 2013). However, the type of justice system in place within a state or country greatly influences the aims and mandates of prisons and in turn targets different aspects of sentencing goals. Justice systems commonly focus on either rehabilitative or retributive measures.

    Read More

  • Institutionalization In Shawshank Redemption

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    This objective rests on the assumption that there was some factor going into why the crime was committed in the first place, and that that factor can be either fixed or eliminated. There are many different approaches to rehabilitation including therapy, education, or some combination of the two. Generally the rehabilitation process begins with addressing the problems which led to criminal behavior, and then helping inmates find other ways to solve those problems that do not include criminal

    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

  • Pros And Cons Of Retribution

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    (Stojkovic and Lovell 2013) The pros of rehabilitation are of course the fact that it is successfully most of the time and is beneficial to society when a person can go from being a criminal to being a productive member of society like a preacher or teacher. The cons are some people just don’t want to change so rehabilitating them is nearly impossible and even there are those that cannot be because they suffer from mental issues or enjoy committing crimes too much to want to change. (Stojkovic and Lovell

    Read More

  • Does The Punishment Fit The Crime?

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society, along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime, are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfare and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years. Crime constructs us as a society whilst society, simultaneously determines what is criminal. Since society is always changing, how we see crime and criminal behavior is changing, thus the way in which we punish those criminal behaviors changes.

    Read More

  • Justifications for Punishment in Modern Society

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Provide the justifications for punishment in modern society. Punishment functions as a form of social control and is geared towards “imposing some unwanted burden such as fines, probations, imprisonment, or even death” on a convicted person in return for the crimes they committed (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). There are four main justifications for punishment and they are: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. There is also said to be a fifth justification of reintegration as well.

    Read More

  • The Purpose of Punishment in a Modern Society

    2222 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to David Garland, punishment is a legal process where violators of the criminal law are condemned and sanctioned with specified legal categories and procedures (Garland, 1990). There are different forms and types of punishment administered for various reasons and can either be a temporary or lifelong type of punishment. Punishment can be originated as a cause from parents or teachers with misbehaving children, in the workplace or from the judicial system in which crimes are committed against the law. The main aim of punishment is to demonstrate to the public, the victim and the offender that justice is to be done, to reduce criminal activities and to deter people from wanting to commit any form of crime against the law. In other words it is a tool used to eliminate the bad in society or to deter people from committing criminal activities.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Punishment

Open Document