Morality and Punishment of Criminals

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Morality and Punishment of Criminals

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British law states that it is he who bares responsibility for the

transgression committed who must be reprimanded. However, there is

much controversy as to where responsibility for moral action lies, or

indeed, whether anyone can be held accountable. As J. L. Mackie

suggests, "an agent is responsible for all and only his intentional

actions." Thus for the punishment of criminals to be considered

righteous, belief in human free will is a necessity. Whilst many

philosophers hold that human free will is a reality, some maintain

that our self - control is in fact an illusion, with our actions being

controlled by device beyond our own deception. If the latter is

reality, everything is pre-determined and the choices we make are

pre-decided.

There are several deterministic concepts. Firstly, hard determinism

focuses on the theory of universal causation, which asserts that

everything in the present is directly caused by events that preceded

them. This view claims that humans are inevitably products of their

upbringing and social environment, thus a human's actions are, in

effect, caused by the previous experiences of the mind. As B.F Skinner

puts it, "humans are like the brush in the hands of an artist - they

are not the cause of an action, but simply the instrument through

which it is expressed." According to incompatibilists, decisions are

therefore, inevitable; there is no compatibility between hard

determinism and moral responsibility. If such a conclusion is valid,

then it may be supposed that we have no right to punish criminals.

However, this conclusion does not cohere with the theory's...

... middle of paper ...

...he reality of free will. However, many hold that the

determinist theory could only be falsified if two situations, alike in

every respect, had two different outcomes. As yet, of course, science

is not sufficiently advanced to yield such conditions. For most,

therefore, the reality of free will remains uncertain. Even the Bible

is open to interpretation and may be cited as convincingly in support

of determinism as in opposition to the theory. The dangers of

incorrectly assuming lack of free will and subsequently abandoning

punishment of criminal activity is obvious; people would behave as

they wished, often failing to consider the effect of their actions on

others, whilst claiming no responsibility for the consequences. In

light of this, punishment of society's criminals is necessary, if only

as a precautionary measure.

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