Pros And Cons Of Being Punished

The society generally has established customs and moral imperative to guide the conduct of each member of that particular society. These norms designating certain ways in which people ought to live in the society exist in societal laws and moral prescription. The justifications for the ideal practices in the society have been found in the desire to maintain peaceful coexistence in the society. The extent of freedom of an individual is therefore often curtailed for the greater good of the society. These utilitarian considerations have been discussed amidst the concept and rationale of punishment. John Stuart Mill, Michel Foucault and Kantian ethics have been used to justify or refute the notion and rationale of punishment in our society. These ethical perspectives provide useful insight into understanding punishment and its justifications or otherwise. Punishment is necessary as a social control tool and must be exerted with reasonableness and with due regard for the aim for which it is exerted.

Kirk Bloodsworth was 22 when he spent eight years in prison, two of those on death row. He was wrongfully convicted. A 9-year old girl was raped and killed on July 25, 1984. Two boys had seen her walking with a man before she suddenly disappeared. The boys described the man to the police and the police came to the conclusion that the murderer was Bloodsworth. He repeatedly claimed he was innocent but he was found guilty and sentenced to death on March, 1985. After 8 years he finally proved he was innocent through DNA testing. He was released from prison on June 1993. He was paid 300,000 dollars (“Correcting”). The US should not institute the death penalty everywhere in the country because it would put us at risk of executing innocent people, costs us millions of dollars in administering the penalty and there is a better way to help the families of murder victims.

Mandatory sentencing is a set penalty approved by parliament for committing a criminal offence. This sentence can involve any type of consequence, it normally refers to prison sentencing. All Australian states and territories have mandatory sentences, most of them introduced life imprisonment for murder after the death penalty’s abolition but, over time, most jurisdictions adjusted the minimum penalty. (Roche, 1999)

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 6.7 million people were supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at year end 2015. President Obama has conveyed tax payer pay $80 billion dollars to house incarcerate individuals yearly. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 limited federal judge sentencing discretions. In 1980 the USA had 500k people incarcerated, the population of prisoners has more than doubled the last two decades. The United States Mandatory sentencing requires offenders receive a predetermined minimum sentencing for some offenses. Since the implementation of mandatory sentencing, prison populations have risen sharply with sky rocking costs. On certain offenses, Federal judges no longer have discretion on the sentence length. Mandatory sentencing laws have shifted the power of punishment to the prosecutor as they have the discretion of charges brought against offenders. According to Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy in their article “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017,” the United State criminal justice leads the world in the percentage of its citizens incarcerated. Mandatory minimum sentencing has led to large prison populations, skyrocketing costs and social family challenges.

The parents also stated that for punishment the children decide on the terms of the consequences and they have to state why they chose those consequences.

Punishment versus Rehabilitation, there has been many debates on the effectiveness of punishment compared to the effectiveness of rehabilitation of convicted offenders in prison and under community supervision. Punishment is defined as a penalty that is imposed on an individual for doing something wrong. The term rehabilitation is defined as a way to help somebody to return to good health or a normal life by providing training or therapy (StudyMode). If an individual commits a crime serious enough to warrant incarceration, then the individual is sent to prison as a form of punishment. While incarcerated

Mandatory sentencing refers to those sentences which a judicial officer is required to impose no matter what the circumstances of the offence. In other words, the judicial officer has no discretion to impose a higher or lower sentence depending upon the nature of the crime. In the case of one punch laws, the mandatory sentence is a minimum so a judicial officer is able to impose a higher sentence if he or she thinks it’s appropriate. For example, a person who king hits someone will automatically get an eight-year mandatory minimum sentence. If someone else does the same thing one month later in a different place and is heard by a different judge he will get that same mandatory minimum sentence of eight years in prison and possibly longer if the judge thinks it’s suitable.

Mandatory Sentencing is a court decision where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically a crime in Australia has a maximum penalty but does not have a minimum, therefore the judge has to take into account the minimum penalty and can then from there continue to add on to the minimum penalty. For example in the late 1990’s a very controversial decision was to made when a mandatory sentence was introduced for repeat home burglary offenders in Western Australia. The NSW government has recently introduced a Mandatory sentencing law as part of a plan to minimise alcohol related violence and to deter others from the violence.

A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law.

Alternative methods of sentencing are primarily aimed at rehabilitation, so that the offender can avoid further contact with the criminal justice system. This is an effective feature of the justice system as it allows an opportunity for the offender to show remorse and make amends and bring satisfaction upon the victims’ and society as it allows an opportunity for the victim to describe the impact of the offender’s actions on their lives. This is clearly evident in the article Circle sentencing ‘helping to keep our mob out of jail’ by Karina Marlow, which involves an alternative court for sentencing adult indigenous offenders, based on customary law and traditional forms of indigenous dispute resolution. The article affirms the effectiveness

Deterrence is the use of punishment to stop potential criminals from committing crimes. Potential criminals will weigh the risks of the crime that they are about to commit and if they feel as though the benefits outweigh the risks of the crime than they will proceed with it. There are two types of deterrence: general deterrence and specific deterrence. When it comes to a deterrent effect on punishment, the punishment needs to be swift, certain and severe. The punishment needs to happen shortly after the crime is committed. Offenders need to know that if they are caught there will not be able to avoid punishment and the punishment needs to be severe enough that the offender will view the risk surely outweighs any pleasure they may get from committing

From a very young age people experience punishment; from school teachers sending students to the corner for a moment of “time-out”, to mothers spanking their children or taking away some of their privileges do to deviant behavior. The purpose of punishment according to its history has always been to rehabilitate the offender into a person who understands that engaging in deviancy or crime, is a wrongful act (Samaha, 439). Comparable with many of the other criminal justice institutions; or decision points, the mission of prisons has experience change throughout the years; however, according to Joel Samaha author of the book Criminal Justice Seventh Edition, general deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution have remained dominantly as the primary

Although some people may disagree, the basis “an eye for an eye” is not good for determining punishment. Sometimes this punishment would be demeaning to the bible. Other times it may just not be fair or deserved.

There is a lot of controversy going around about mandatory life prison for juveniles who commit murder in the Supreme Court of Justice. Most of the officials would like to abolish it being mandatory a posed the small group that wishes to retain it. This is a controversy that talks about a teen murdering someone and no matter what the reasoning or metal stability, the teen should be locked up for the rest of their life, forget all inputs, if the kid killed, they are locked up for eternity. I am given to understand that most people (due to human nature) change over time given and because of age and other aspects such as tragedies of death or loss. It has been scientifically proven that human brain activity changes drastically during the adolescent ages, (between 12-18) this is inhuman to lock someone up for the rest of their life. I do agree with the Supreme Court justices to abolish mandatory life prison for juveniles who commit murder. Its really intense to be a mandatory punishment.

Theories of why we punish offenders are crucial to the understanding of criminal law; in fact it is not easy to define legal punishment, however one thing is clear within the different theories of punishment is that they all require justification.[1] There are many theories of punishment yet they are predominantly broken down into two main categories. The utilitarian theory seeks to punish offenders to discourage, or “deter,” future wrong doing. The retributive theory seeks to punish offenders because they deserve to be punished due to their behaviour upsetting the balance of society[2].