Punishment Research Paper
Punishment Research Paper
SOC 120
Punishments 2 Citizens are being arrested every single day for an unlimited variety of reasons. The reason can be anything from abuse of a family member, robbery, drug possession, or murder. The criminal system has four ways to justify punishment. Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and social protection are ways in which punishment is justified. Each of the four has its own style of punishment together with its own pros and cons for each Citizen. By definition, retribution can mean an act with a moral vengeance on how society will make an offender suffer the same amount of suffering as the crime itself. Retribution has been playing a role in society since the beginning of the bible. In the middle ages, crime was considered an offense onto society and to God. Back then crime was an upset to society’s original order as a whole. This is how society got the idea that the crimes committed should have a punishment equal to the amount of sufferance do to the crime. This way of punishing is still being used today by the justice system. By definition, deterrence can mean society’s way of preventing criminal behavior through the act of punishing. Deterrence was noticed by the eighth century. At that time society thought that if anyone was able to think then they would not commit a single crime due to the fact that the punishment would overcome the benefit of the crime committed. With that in mind citizens wouldn’t even think about committing a crime because of the outcome of the punishment. Deterrence was put into place to drop the rise of the death penalty by scaring citizens from doing any crime at all. Today the rate of crime is still on a rise so there are some people that feel this type of punishment isn’t very effective. If criminals were at all afraid of the punishment
SOC 120
Punishments 2 Citizens are being arrested every single day for an unlimited variety of reasons. The reason can be anything from abuse of a family member, robbery, drug possession, or murder. The criminal system has four ways to justify punishment. Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and social protection are ways in which punishment is justified. Each of the four has its own style of punishment together with its own pros and cons for each Citizen. By definition, retribution can mean an act with a moral vengeance on how society will make an offender suffer the same amount of suffering as the crime itself. Retribution has been playing a role in society since the beginning of the bible. In the middle ages, crime was considered an offense onto society and to God. Back then crime was an upset to society’s original order as a whole. This is how society got the idea that the crimes committed should have a punishment equal to the amount of sufferance do to the crime. This way of punishing is still being used today by the justice system. By definition, deterrence can mean society’s way of preventing criminal behavior through the act of punishing. Deterrence was noticed by the eighth century. At that time society thought that if anyone was able to think then they would not commit a single crime due to the fact that the punishment would overcome the benefit of the crime committed. With that in mind citizens wouldn’t even think about committing a crime because of the outcome of the punishment. Deterrence was put into place to drop the rise of the death penalty by scaring citizens from doing any crime at all. Today the rate of crime is still on a rise so there are some people that feel this type of punishment isn’t very effective. If criminals were at all afraid of the punishment
References: Bronsteen, J. (2009). Retribution 's Role. Indiana Law Journal, p28, 1129-1156, Retrieved on, November 19, 2009 from EBSCOhost database. Little Eagle. (2006). The Effects of Retribution, Deterrence, Rehabilitation, and Social Protection on American. Retrieved on November 13, 2009 Rossum. R. (2003). Rehabilitating Rehabilitation : One reason why prisons are failing to rehabilitate inmates is that rehabilitation seeks to improve the character of offenders while most prisons degrade prisoners. General OneFile, p24, Retrieved on November 14, 2009, from Gale PowerSearch database.