The Purposes of Punishment

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

Deterrence theory can be outlined as “principles of certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment, proportionality, specific and general deterrence” (Burke, 2009). In order for the punishment to be effective it has to be certain, swift, severe. Certainty is more important than the severity in deterring crime. Deterrence theory confirms that if the punishment contains these three elements people will rationally calculate that there is more to be lost than there is to be gained from crime (Gordon, 2010). Deterrence functions

As we have learned there are four main goals of punishment. We all understand as members of society that if you commit a crime in this country you go through the legal process, and the end result is a punishment. This punishment is going to be handed down from the judge. Like said before the four main goals are retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, and incapacitation. These four main goals play a very vital role in the correction community. Many things play into the punishment role such as geographical location, money of the community to carry out the action, how full the prisons are, and how the judge feels how sever the crime was.

The offender must have some type of punishment for the action he or she chose. Deterrence is a type of sentencing that prevent future actions of crimes. There is a general deterrence and specific deterrence. Specific deterrence is punishment that prevents the criminal to commit additional crimes by enforcing fear. "Back in the day", depending on the crime, the criminals would get parts of their body removed. For example, rapist were castrated. General deterrence is when examples are shown to prevent someone, that is contemplating on committing crimes, to change their minds. Sometime's when a person is put in jail it does not change their criminal minds.

It is believed that punishment works to protect people from their criminals as it used to be seen as a fear in people’s mind to avoid inappropriate behaviour against other people, harming other people in certain ways and breaking the laws set by society or government. Punishment is a common view of human beings and they choose to behave appropriately towards their duty to follow rules set out by government laws to avoid fines or sentences. Sentencing is categorised n various degrees depending on the type and severity of crime committed, and imprisonment is considered as most common way to protect communities from its offenders and deterrent to re-offending all over the world. As Murray (1997) claims that punishment reduces crime

Retribution is what most commonly referred to as the “just deserts” model that says the punishment should match the “degree of harm a criminal has inflicted on their victims” (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). In other words,

　　Punishment is a necessary evil, it is required to deter criminals from committing crimes and to serve as an example to other potential criminals

The next goal of punishment is deterrence. The purpose of deterrence is to convince criminals and society to not commit future crimes (277; ch.9). Deterrence has two separate subcategories which are

Deterrence has also been labeled “utilitarian” and justifiable where a particular punishment results in a less painful outcome that would otherwise occur. Deterrence is broken down into two categories. The first category is ‘general deterrence’, where the objective is to deter other members of society into committing the same crime, or similar crimes. The second category is ‘specific deterrence’, where the objective is to deter the individual offender from committing the same or similar crimes against society in the future. This theory focuses strongly on the offender and attempts to predict his or her future behavior by looking at factors such as past criminal record, attitude, motivation and likelihood of reformation and rehabilitation.

One of the goals of criminal sanctions is retribution. Retribution is basically punishing violators who have committed a crime and the severity of the punishment should be that which matches the severity of the crime. Retribution is a goal because government need to give out this punishment so that society does not feel the need to punish the violators of crimes by taking the law into their own hands. The second goal of criminal sanctions is deterrence.

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

Justification of punishment is needed because there needs to be sufficient reasoning behind the treatment that wrongdoers receive. The moral education theory provides the best reasoning for punishment by taking into account that people are rational beings with the ability to make choices, and providing moral education on prohibited actions or behaviors. One might object to these arguments and say that due to the complexity of figuring out exactly what actions are considered immoral, the moral education theory is inadequate. A good example of this would be current laws in certain states prohibiting the use of marijuana. Undoubtedly, marijuana use is not deemed to be immoral by the majority, for there would not be any states in which it is legalized. Many people would

In the Oxford English Dictionary shows different use of the meaning to the word punishment which is defined as " The infliction of a penalty or sanction in retribution for an offence or transgression; (also) that which is inflicted as a penalty; a sanction imposed to ensure the application and enforcement of a law" means that punishment involves imposing pain to offenders that hurt victims should receive punishment. the other meaning of punishment in extended use "Sport. The infliction of severe blows, in boxing; hard hitting; Also: the action or result of capitalizing on poor play or a mistake by

Punishment is "an evil inflicted by a person in a position of authority upon another person who is judged to have violated a rule." (Pojman and Reiman 5) Punishment according to Pojman is evil. In some way, shape or form harm must be inflicted upon another person, a harm that is justified by the punisher. This is an interesting theory already, punishment; in a sense, is someone on the outside dictating how a person should be harmed based off of the wrong doing they have committed. But who are we to judge what a person must endure based off their wrong doing?

Why do we punish wrongdoers and what do we expect to get from punishing an individual? It is said that for everyone who has been wronged the one thing they all have I common is the desire for retribution. Meaning, because someone has done something bad to you, something equally bad should be done to the offender an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I believe that this process is short-sighted, and it opens the door to create a moral imbalance that must be corrected.