Analysis Of Punishment: A Modest Proposal For Effective Improvements

“Finally!” Today I went to a school assembly about bullying. The principal said, “If anyone is caught bullying in school, you will be suspended for a week.” I told the principal that we need to make harsher punishments if anyone is bullying. Here are the reasons why there should be harsher punishments for bullying.

In a society of criminals, those that choose to be and those that are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The criminal justice system has defined four theories of punishment and you may ask what are the four theories of punishment? The first theory of punishment is Retribution which is a theory that criminals should pay for their crime. Society agrees that this punishment is the most reliable because it holds criminals accountable for their crime in relation to the degree of the crime they have committed. In recent years before the lawyers and court rulings, the retributive punishment would have killed those who committed murder or make the offenders suffer for what they have done wrong. If a criminal made a victim suffer, they criminal should suffer as well. Punishment of the criminal is defined in the dictionary as “punishment is made an offender suffer for what they have done” that is a great example of retribution

The criminal justice system has four goals they strive for. These goals are discourage, punishment, damage, and rehabilitation. Of these four, discourage, punishment, and damage mean the same thing. When a crime is committed, punishment and rehabilitation is needed to correct a problem (Punishment vs. Rehabilitation: A Proposal for Revising Sentencing Practices, 1991). When the delinquent has departed from prison and enters the real life, they tend to get other issues other than the usual drug and alcohol use if they haven’t already been addicted.

The United States is less the 5% of the world population but has almost 25% of the world’s prison population (Coates, 2015; Waldman, 2016). In the last 40 years, the number of American civilians imprisoned by the United States has increased 500%. (Mauer, 2011). However, this explosion in incarceration rates has not been evenly distributed throughout the American population (Waldman, 2016). While one in seventeen White men will be imprisoned in their lifetime, one in sixteen Latino men will face this fate and for Black men, the number is one in three (Mauer,2011). Neither the racial disparity in incarceration nor its scale was accidental (Coates, 2015). The mass incarceration of Black men in the United States was a direct result of the “War

The main idea and subject of this article is that parents with unjust harsh punishment techniques cause present and future issues for their children. The article discusses poverty stricken families have harsher techniques in parenting when compared to middle and higher classes. “...parents who live in poverty treat their children harshly more often, researchers say” (Inquirer 1). These punishments may have more than just some tears or a temporary wound. “When parents are too consistently harsh, their children's brains release stress chemicals…these chemicals are released when a person is in danger. These chemicals are toxic, or poisonous, to developing brains.

The concept of mandatory sentencing is a relatively new idea in the legal field. It was first introduced in 1951 with the Boggs Act, and it made simple marijuana possession a minimum of two to ten years with a $20,000 fine. This was eventually repealed by Congress in 1970, but mandatory sentences came back with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Since then, the scope and presence of mandatory sentencing has only grown, especially mandatory sentences for drug related offenses. Recently, there has been a growing concern over the use and implementation of mandatory minimum sentencing, with many believing it reduces a judge’s ability to give out a sentence that they feel accordingly fits the crime. Many advocates for mandatory

The pilgrims came to this country in hopes of practicing their religion in peace and not persecuted by an abusive government. In the early colonial settlement of the United States the main focus was on rehabilitation. Settling a new land takes a lot of resources along with people to put those resources to use. So they were more concerned with solving the problem an individual might have compared to killing them. Also the communities were small, leading to people knowing almost everyone around them and their opinion about others, it was unlikely they would kill someone everyone else knew they hated leading to you quick capture and punishment. However over time more people meant more conflict and this lead for a need for punishments to stop people from acting as they saw fit and follow the standard society demanded.

I believe we punish different viewpoints because it may not be considered a majority social norm. By this I mean that a large group of people creates a social norm for the situation based on common thoughts/ perspectives. I feel that once an individual or group agrees a common idea, then nothing will change their opinion. This mentality will then lead to punishment of the individual who has the opposite viewpoint, because some people may not like to admit they are wrong.

Sentencing intended to shame offenders for wrongdoing. There are two types of punishments: criminal can go to jail either choose shame-based sentencing. Sometimes, judges allow preference to offenders which is not a good way to punish an individual who attempt a crime. It is very nondescript offering choices to a wrongdoer. An individual should be treated the way that he shouldn’t think again to attempt any crime again. Specially, public shaming based sentences are easy approach for criminals in the view of the fact that if the wrongdoer doesn’t feel humiliated. Moreover, these kinds of criminals don’t feel embracement because they don’t care but public thinks about them. It gives them opportunity to attempt crime again and again. In result, they indeed learn anything from punishment.

What will no prison time do for a criminal who has a history of attempted murder and robbing and stealing? Tsotsi is a teenager who lived in South Africa in the poor part of a township in Johannesburg and takes part of a small gang. He should be considered guilty and charged for his actions such as robbing, stealing and attempted murder. However, the strict, unforgiving Apartheid laws that took place in his town has an impact for what he has commit and must take some of the blame. Therefore, he should receive alternative sentences like community service or probation, which could be far more beneficial for him.

In the United States there are four main goals when it comes to punishment which are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). The main goals for these punishments are to maintain order over society and to prevent recidivism (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). This ties into the Ecology perspective. By maintaining order over society and preventing recidivism, it ties into all of the issues regarding the Ecology perspective which requires for each issue to address the individual, family, community and society. Maintaining order over society and preventing recidivism strives toward making a safer environment for the individual, family, community and society. There is no universal agreement for making the severity of punishment just or fair (DeJong, 2016, p. 288). When it comes to retribution the person who is getting punished deserves the punishment (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Retribution refers to when an individual commits a certain crime then that person must receive a punishment proportionate to that crime or suffering that they may have caused towards the victim (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Regarding deterrence there are two types, general deterrence and specific deterrence (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). General deterrence focuses on the society in general and wants to scare everyone away from committing crimes (DeJong, 2016, p. 289). Specific deterrence focuses on criminals that have already been convicted and wants to prevent them from

Punishment is defined as “the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense” (“Punishment”). Some prominent theories of punishment include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and the moral education theory. Although retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation are all crucial components of punishment justification, independently the theories have weaknesses that avert the moral rationalization of punishment. I believe that Jean Hampton’s moral education theory is the best justification for punishment because it yields the most sympathetic and prudent reasons for punishment, while simultaneously showing that punishment cannot be justified by solely

The concept of punishment has been debated throughout history by politicians, philosophers, and everyday citizens. One such philosopher, Jeremy Bentham argued that all unwarranted acts done upon another person is evil, which would classify punishment as an evil (Pollock, 2017). Over the years, punishment has become sterilized by the courts that were established when the criminal justice system became more organized. The judicial system now has the responsibility of punishment in the form of a sentence, which is the penalty imposed on a convicted offender during the sentencing in a criminal trial (Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2017). However, the roles of sentencing have been interchanged and argued overtime between the ideas of either to punish or to reform the offender (Schmalleger, & Smykla, 2017).

Punishment has been in existence since the early colonial period and has continued throughout history as a method used to deter criminals from committing criminal acts. Philosophers believe that punishment is a necessity in today’s modern society as it is a worldwide response to crime and violence. Friedrich Nietzche’s book “Punishment and Rehabilitation” reiterates that “punishment makes us into who we are; it creates in us a sense of responsibility and the ability to take and release our social obligations” (Blue, Naden, 2001). Immanuel Kant believes that if an individual commits a crime then punishment should be inflicted upon that individual for the crime committed. Cesare Beccaria, also believes that if there is a breach of the

Around the world, from Asia to Europe, the United States to Great Britain, and China to Africa, there are a few principles and ideas that can be identified as being universally ingrained into any society. These principles are needed to help each society remain afloat and not become overflowed with chaos and violence. The use of punishment is one of these principles; it is useful, evitable, and common to all societies and according to Durkheim, a French sociologist who studied social cohesion, the same can be said about deviance. Punishment is practiced in a various amount of ways; it often depends on the form of government, technological innovations, population size, and morals and values found in that society as a collective. Different forms of punishment include: imprisonment, execution, decapitation, stoning, banishment, and more. Events such as the French and American Revolution, the Enlightenment period, the rise of a democracy in the government, the development of capitalism, the Industrial revolution, and the breaking away of the colonies had an impact on the evolution of punishment around the world. As time evolves, the form of punishment evolves along with.