A Personal View of Punishment

A Personal View of Punishment

Introduction

In my opinion punishment is a term that is well known best by children and criminals. As a child you learn what you can and cannot do in life by pushing the limits, seeing just how far you can go before being punished. You push those limits via through your school, peers, family, society or the criminal justice system. Punishment is a course in life that if presented correctly the teacher will teach the student a life long lesson. That is why when a person has done something wrong he or she should be punished as close as possible to the time and or place of the incident. "If punishment is long delayed, the connection between it and the offense becomes stained. It makes little sense to punish someone who has long behaving properly for a transgression long past." (Braswell, McCarthy, & McCarthy, 2002)

Punishment gives a person or society as sense of security. The security is that if someone commits an offense against someone that they will be punished. There have been many famous philosophers and theorist that have studied the term punishment. They have studied the different types of punishment and it effects. The goals of punishment and the rule that it plays in today's society have changed throughout the times.

The concept of punishment its definition, its use, and the justification of its use have baffled many countries for centuries. Punishment takes many forms. A parent may ground their child because they refused to do their homework, an employer may fire a worker that is caught stealing, or the government may send a bank robber to jail for robbing a bank. "Throughout history, children have been punished for bad behavior, whether it be physical (for example, a slap or even a blow in more primitive times), psychological (for example, being deprived of a valued possession or opportunity such as dessert or television), or shaming (for example, having to stand in a corner). The emphasis was on letting children know that the behaviors for which they were being punished were not acceptable and on conditioning a response to prevent those behaviors in the future." (Seiter, 2002)

Punishment is a means of deterring a person from indulging in unwanted behavior. The Oxford English dictionary defines the term punishment as "the action of punishing. The penalty imposed for an offence.