Capital Punishment Then and Now

Punishments then and now! A punishment is the negative consequence forced upon someone by a group or person. Normally a punishment is a consequence of a rule being broken. A rule is any type of vehicle, or guide to ensure certain actions or behavior. Rules are often just written or spoken, and provide guidelines for human activity. A rule is made by higher authority, like a Parent, King, Minister, Dictator, or a Teacher. Rules are enforced with punishments, to deter people from breaking them. Besides punishments being used to deter people; they could also be used to isolate, retribution, and rehabilitate criminals. The question that is related to this essay is; what was the goal of older punishment and what is the goal of modern punishment?
Out of the four points of punishments I could easily point out the prime difference between older punishments and modern punishments. Older punishments were focused on retribution; modern punishments are focused on rehabilitation. If I had to list the focus of both eras in order from greatest to least it would look like this. Older: Retribution, Deterring, isolation, rehabilitation (only if it was available). Modern: Rehabilitation, Isolation, Deterring, Retribution (Hardly ever the case). Older forms of capital punishment revolved around retribution. In the modern era Capital punishment is hardly enforced and courts would prefer to isolate that person before killing them. Deterring a person from breaking a rule was a major method of punishment in older times (1500-1860). Public beatings were the best way to deter someone from breaking any rules. In the modern western world we do not beat criminals.(outside of the western world criminals are often beaten in public) . Isolation is the most common form of punishment in any era. When a law is broken a criminal is kept away from society as a negative consequence. They are either sent to a prison, a camp, a ship, or locked up at their home; Unable to contact the outside world.