More handpicked essays just for you.
Advantages and disadvantages of retributive justice
Concepts of restorative justice
Restorative justice theory
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Advantages and disadvantages of retributive justice
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, God distributes divine punishment amongst offenders of his divine law and commands. The severity of these punishments differs greatly, from the use of plagues to total destruction. Many biblical scholars argue that the holy scriptures promote the idea of retributive justice (something along the lines of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-retributive/) defines retributive justice as the act of enforcing punishment that is proportionate to the crime or offense committed, and that no innocent person(s) should be harmed by this punishment. Because God’s divine retribution found throughout the Tenakh is inconsistent …show more content…
And they will not ever be forgiven by …show more content…
Even in the idea of Hell, eternal suffering is a punishment, and it is the worst kind of punishment one can endure. Knowing one has sinned and would not be forgiven is a punishment so great, that in the New Testament, God chooses to sacrifice His only son to show all of mankind that God is able to forgive their sins. Therefor no man would be given the punishment to walk the earth in shame in the eyes of God as Cain did again. Suffering is only given as a punishment for grave sins against God, being idolatry and the murder of a righteous man. Regardless, these two forms of divine punishment, are much too severe for the punishment for sinning, therefor it does not conform to the theoretical prospect of retributive
...cape her judgment nor argument with her edicts will sway her. Hell is an absolute, and all the more forbidding because of it. Though the violence depicted in these myths varies, the overall story remains unchanged. Disobeying the laws and strictures set forth by the government and religious doctrines will exact a hefty price, perhaps eternally.
This paper considers the desert arguments raised to support retributivism, or retribution. Retributivism is "the application of the Principle of Desert to the special case of criminal punishment." Russ Shafer-Landau and James Rachels offer very different perspectives on moral desert which ground their differing views on the appropriate response to wrongdoing. In "The Failure of Retributivism," Shafer-Landau contends that retributivism fails to function as a comprehensive theoretical foundation for the legal use of punishment. In contrast, in his article "Punishment and Desert," Rachels uses the four principles of guilt, equal treatment, proportionality and excuses to illustrate the superiority of retribution as the basis for the justice system over two alternatives: deterrence and rehabilitation. Their philosophical treatment of the term leads to divergence on the justification of legal punishment. Ultimately, Rachels offers a more compelling view of desert than Shafer-Landau and, subsequently, better justifies his endorsement of a retributive justice system.
Sometimes we can not always give what they deserve but, giving them less than what they deserve is unfair. The bible believes in an eye for an eye. Meaning you can kill someone who has killed. I believe in punishing murders and they should get nothing less than what they deserve, but an eye for an eye, to me, is not always the correct punishment. I am in favor of proportional retributivism because it allows flexibility within a range of murder cases. It would allow a more heinous murderer to receive the death penalty and a less severe murder criminal to receive life in prison without violating
Justice is a very important ruling power for both gods and mortals. For instance, in Sophocles' tragedy, Antigone, justice prevails over king Creon's actions. He sentences his own niece to death for giving her deceased brother, a pronounced enemy of Thebes, a proper burial. In return for his rigid ruling he loses his wife and son to tragic deaths. Creon puts his own city?s justice before the determined justice of the gods, and pays dearly for it. Antigone also receives justice for her actions even though she dies. She did go against the law of her mortal king, but did obey the law of the gods, and therefore died a hero and martyr. The laws of the gods gives dishonor to those who do not properly respect their family members. In order to keep her honor and self-respect, Antigone had to break her city?s law, even if it meant death.
Another way that some argue against pure restitution is to say that is does not have an acceptable implication that punishment does have. Pure restitution lacks implications that are backed with punishment. Additionally, it is argued that pure restitution has an unacceptable implication that punishment also shares. Some say that pure restitution is too individualistic. It is also argued that some harm is beyond repair, and restitution will not solve or make these issues better, and the theory of pure restitution allows us to do nothing at all to the offender. A very controversial issue here is the question of murder.
It is my opinion that the reason that the death penalty is not a deterrent is because the murderer is not executed in a timely manner due to the appeals process. The imperfection of the criminal justice system lies with the fact that humans operate it: human sinfulness and the need for spiritual redemption is the reason for errors with the legal system (1 John 1:8-10). In order to maintain balance, God knew that tough laws (despite a human’s age) needed to be enacted due to the sinful nature of humankind. The Bible subscribes to a list of offenses with the mandated punishments set forth by God. The Word of God is inerrant and His directive for heinous crimes (e.g., murder, rape) was the death penalty (Genesis 9:5, 6; Exodus 21:15; Numbers 35:31; Deuteronomy 17:6, 22:25). Society has a legal and moral responsibility to respond to criminal victimization in order to preserve order and protect the community. God is ultimately forgiving, however His laws are clear. (Genesis 9:5, 6; Exodus 21:15; Numbers 35:31; Deuteronomy 17:6, 22:25). The Constitution guarantees offenders a fair trial, not a license to avoid justice. God, who is the greatest Criminal Justice Master in the Universe, the Supreme Law Maker and Giver, states in no uncertain terms that justice is to be equated with and sanctioned in accordance with the crime committed and that punishment to be delivered swiftly (Genesis 9: 5-6; Exodus 21; 1-31; Leviticus 24:7-22; Deuteronomy 13: 6-11, 19: 13-20, 25: 2; Romans 13: 1-4). The bottom line is, the imperfection of the criminal justice system lies with the fact that humans operate it: human sinfulness and the need for spiritual redemption is the reason for errors with the legal system (1 John
way you'll be casted to hell in your afterlife even if you pray for forgiveness right before you die
..., a thief that stole to feed his family would not be punished as harshly as one who stole to buy a new car. A personalized hell would suffice for multiple sins, as well as severity, by creating a more sinner-centered environment where people are punished for what they did, not just their sin.
In The Inferno of Dante, Dante creates a striking correspondence between a soul’s sin on Earth and the punishment it receives in hell for that sin. This simple idea serves to illuminate one of Dante’s recurring themes: the perfection of god’s justice. Bearing the inscription the gates of hell explicitly state that god was moved to create hell by justice. Wisdom was employed to know what punishments would be just, power to create the forms of justice, and love to show that the punishments are conditioned with compassion, however difficult it may be to recognize (and the topic of a totally separate paper). Certainly then, if the motive of hell’s creation was justice, then its purpose was (and still is) to provide justice. But what exactly is this justice that Dante refers to? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the So hell exists to punish those who sin against god, and the suitability of Hell’s specific punishments testify to the divine perfection that all sin violates.
Justice is a theme that differs in many different texts, and this also true in the Odyssey and the Bible. Justice in Homeric texts was served to neutralize a situation and bring things back to the way they were, to a time of stability and respect for authority. The bible has usually been interpreted, however, as serving justice on a moral basis, as a way to punish those who did not respect each other or act in God likeness.
In Judaism, God is seen as having a contractual relationship with the Jewish people where they must obey his holy laws in return for their status of the chosen people. God rewards or punishes Jewish people based on whether they obey or disobey his will. In parts of the Old Testament, however, God does show mercy or forgiveness, and in later interpretations God’s laws such as the Ten Commandments are followed
What I detected, rightly or wrongly, was an animus against punishment as such. When I gingerly introduced the subject of Hell, those who had spontaneously rejected capital punishment and then had some second thoughts about life imprisonment when looked at in itself and not as an alternative to the death penalty seemed inclined toward a creative interpretation of eternal punishment. And of course there have been eminent theologians who have wondered aloud about the doctrine of Hell. Even Jacques Maritain, late in his life had written equivocally on the subject.
For those who believe in a God who is living and active and who believe in the sanctity of the scriptures, the question of God's justice in the Bible does seem a contradiction at times. As Neiman observed, The Book of Proverbs presents a formula for life, promising blessings to the man who lives a moral life (436). But is The Book of Proverbs a collection of promises or is it the wise man's observations of probabilities? One can see the unpleasant consequences of poor choices, as well as the good fortunes of those who have lived a "clean" life, but sometimes this moral law breaks down. As Neiman states, "experience has led men to realize that ...
Injustice and justice balance out. One might even go so far as to say that the two are one and the same, that they are two sides of the same coin. But why are they so important? Why have wars been waged over instances of injustice? Why are the two usually thought of as being separate? Both Euripides' Electra and the King James Version of Matthew suggest that justice and injustice are important and distinct because one brings about salvation, while the other is itself a sort of salvation. Injustice leads to the instance of justice—of salvation. Consequently, injustice and justice may be thought of as two separate and distinct ideas. Salvation is a concern that is dependent upon instances of injustice and justice. In Electra and Matthew, these instances of injustice and justice are acts of murder.
One way in which death can be viewed comes across the Catholic religion. The Catholic believers look life after death in a prospective of three different worlds, such as Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise according to the deeds committed during life. If a person during his or her lifetime committed any sins, this person’s next world will be the Hell. The traditional view in which people refer to hell can be found in the book written by Dante Alighieri, “La Divina Commedia”. The book states that the formation of Hell was given by the crash of Lucifer (the angel that wanted to be better than God) from the sky onto the earth. Crashing on the Earth in Jerusalem, his head formed an upside down cone inside the Earth. This is where is located the Hell. In the Hell, people pay for their sins with different penitences (12-13). For instance, a person that committed homicide will freeze in a lake frozen by the breath of Satan (XXXIV canto). If a person during his or her life commits any sins but asks for forgiveness, then he or she will go to the Purgatory. The purgatory is represented by an island with a mountain (23). One source states that “Purgatory is very similar to Hell; the main difference is that one will eventually be released from torture. The souls that go in the Purgatory are tortured with fire. These souls remain in purgatory until they become sufficiently purified to enter heaven”(2). For example, if a soul in the purgatory asks for forgiveness and pays the punition with some tests, the soul will be released and moved immediately to Heaven (2).