The Effectiveness of Sanctions Essay

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

As Cierco(Source A) said to his son, “physical force… is characteristic of man.” Peace may last for some time, but differing views on complicated issues means fighting for what you believe is right. For example, the Cold War clearly supports this message because the US strongly believed in democratic values and they were fighting against the Soviet Union who desired to spread communism. The Cold War strengthened US politically because they maintained their democratic values and contained communism by helping out countries that were devastated after World War II. The US was strictly against communism because it harmed their democratic views and because this could not be solved through discussion, the Cold War was bound to happen. The US and USSR wanted to gain more allies through the spread of their own ideologies but, the Soviet Union clearly had a negative intent of spreading their power on the world. The US policy of containment weakened the Soviet Union because they were not able to spread communism and therefore led to the fall of their empire. This shows that war can either strengthen countries or weaken countries who abuse their use of power. Action must be taken against countries who have a negative purpose of spreading their power and if not resolved through discussion, this means going to

In The Land of Open Graves, Anthropologist Jason De León provides semi fictionalize personal stories of how US immigration policy effects the lives of border crossers. De León focuses on “Prevention through Deterrence”, the strategy of guiding border crossers towards the Sonoran Desert in order to let the hostile conditions discourage potential crossers and punish those who follow through. De León humanizes his ethnography in order to illustrate the pain and suffering that “Prevention through Deterrence” has caused.

The United States prison population has grown seven-fold over the past forty years, and many Americans today tend to believe that the high levels of incarceration in our country stem from factors such as racism, socioeconomic differences, and drugs. While these factors have contributed to the incarceration rate present in our country today, I argue that the most important reason our country has such a high incarceration rate is the policy changes that have occurred since the 1970s. During this time, the United States has enacted policy changes that have produced an astounding rise in the use of imprisonment for social control. These policy changes were enacted in order to achieve greater consistency, certainty, and severity and include sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three strikes laws (National Research Council 2014). Furthermore, I argue that mandatory sentencing has had the most significant effect on the incarceration rate.

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

Community correction is a term that refers to everything ranging from diversion before the trial to the punishments that follows after the trial. This refers to any way ranging to non imprisonment yet supervised ways used to deal with criminal offenders who are facing conviction or who has been convicted. (Beck et al., 2001). Probation as well as parole are the two most commonly way of dealing with the offenders though there are many ways such as being confined at home, electronic surveillance, day fines, community service shock probation and residential community supervision to mention but a few. The following are some of the intermediate sanction actions in the criminal corrections:

Despite the growing popularity of drug treatment courts in the United States, challenges and inconsistences surround the quintessential alternative to incarceration. As noted by Lindquist et al. (2006), there are vast inconsistencies in the clarification and implementation of graduated sanctions and rewards. The definitions and interpretation of graduated sanctions varies immensely on jurisdiction, which results in inconsistent application of sanctions. Rather than applying the graduated sanctions in a fair and standardized manner, some drug treatment courts are known to tailor the sanctions to the individual participant. This aberrant approach to the sanctions model results in ineffective treatment because participants may not know which sanction to expect to receive for committing a particular infraction (Lindquist, et al., 2006).

As a result of the implementation of mandatory sentencing polices and get tough on crime laws that began in the 1970s, dementia has become just one of the rising age-related infirmities that has plagued the growing aging prison population, drastically increasing prison cost for these individuals. The New York Times editors argue that in order to address the rising caseload of aging inmates in need of mental health care “states must pursue other avenues.” They suggest that states “foster partnerships between prisons and nursing homes to improve the quality of care; consider compassionate release programs for frail inmates who no longer present a threat to public safety; and, no less important, revisit the mandatory sentencing policies that did away with judicial discretion and filled the prisons to bursting in the first place” (“Dementia Behind Bars,” 2012).

The Embargo on North Korea was placed in 1950 because, of poor human rights and, their nuclear program. Even though it has been over 60 years since the embargo was first placed there is still no formal diplomacy with the country, unless you count rants tweeted by the @POTUS.

For centuries governments have acted on behalf of society removing and punishing criminals with the goal of protecting its citizens. Criminals were arrested and locked-up in jails awaiting their sentencing. Once sentenced, they were publically humiliated, tortured, or killed. Early forms punishments were cruel and mostly focused on retribution.

Throughout time, the use of punishment has changed drastically. Not only has the actual infliction of punishment changed, the reasoning behind this punishment has also changed. There have been numerous scholars, educators, and researchers that have presented various theories on the reasoning behind societal punishment. Some of these theories are closely similar, however some are drastically different. It is important to note that these theorists have broad perceptions that can be rooted back to specific time periods throughout history. Societal punishment is defined as, “punishment being a complex social institution, shaped by the ensemble of social and historical forces and having a range of effects that reach well beyond the population of offenders” (Garland, 1991).

The Different Aims of Sentencing There are a number of reasons why a society punishes offenders. These include, among others, to discourage the offender from committing further crimes (individual deterrence), to help the offender, so that he or she won’t offend again (rehabilitation), to prevent the offender from committing further crimes through imprisonment (incapacitation) and to show society’s disapproval of the crime (denunciation). Retribution is to punish on the premise that it is a payback for the offence (Retribution carries with it the notion of “Do the crime, do the time”) Reparation is aimed at compensating the victim of the crime usually by ordering the offender to pay order to

The incapacitation effect saves lives - that is, that by executing murderers you prevent them from murdering again and do, thereby, save innocent life (B.1-4, 7, 9, 10 & 15). The evidence of this is conclusive and incontrovertible. Furthermore, the individual deterrent effect also proves that executions save innocent life (B.7-9 & 11-18). This effect represents those potential murderers who did not murder under specific circumstances because of their fear of execution. There are many, perhaps thousands, of such documented cases, representing many innocent lives saved by the fear of execution. Circumstances dictate that the majority of these cases will never be documented and that the

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

World leaders often decide that the most obvious alternatives to sanctions are no good – military action would be too strong and diplomatic protests too weak. Sanctions can provide a satisfying dramatic display, but avoid the high costs of war.(Library of Economics) This isn’t to say that sanctions don’t cost a thing, just that they’re often less costly than the alternatives.