The Role Of Punishment In Our Western Criminal Justice System

Consider the design of a puppet. When observing this structure, one will give attention to the source of the puppet’s actions being dictated by the puppeteer. These actions are able to be transmitted from the will of the puppeteer into the puppet through the strings that the puppeteer uses to control specific parts of the puppet. Furthermore, one can infer that the strings of the puppet are the motive behind the puppet’s action. If the puppet’s actions are disoriented or even disjointed, one can infer that the strings or the motives behind the puppet’s actions are conflicting. A notable literary example of this depiction can be found in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserablés. Late in Book V: Valjean, Jean Valjean describes the method of reasoning behind Javert’s suicide when he says, “To owe life to a criminal...to betray society in order to remain true...these absurdities should come about and be heaped on top of him...it was this that defeated him” (Hugo 1181). Javert’s adherence to his internal conflict imploded and eventually influenced his suicide; a reader might see Javert’s decision and confirm that an inner conflict of motives prompted his unanticipated action. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a 19th Century existentialist Russian author, portrays a similar theme in his book Crime and Punishment which tells the story of a man named Raskolnikov, the suspect of a murder case, who appears like a puppet with actions that become increasingly

This essay explains sentencing in the United States Criminal Justice system. The objectives of punishment in the United States corrections is to help deter crime and to ensure reoffenders don’t reoffend. Sentencing impacts the corrections system and society in a positive manor by eliminating offenders out of the community. Sentencing may include one of the following: probation, fines, prison, community service, probation and so forth depending on the state you reside and the type of offense you commit. Each crime committed doesn’t have a set sentence, therefore they are determined on a case to case basis. The main goal of the criminal justice system is to defend the community and serve justice. Sentencing plays a vital role in the Criminal Justice system.

We jail a grand amount of the population most times, who don’t necessarily produce any harm or those who have not committed violent crimes. Most arrest, convictions, and sentencing are a product of drug related issues. “Sentencing policies of the War on Drugs era resulted in dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offenses” (The Sentencing Project, 2016, p.3).

The four goals of punishment are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. Retribution is a punishment that when a person gets a punishment for something that they have done and to get back at them. An example for a retribution would when someone gets a death penalty for commenting a murder. Incapacitation is when a person is trying to prevent a person who already had a sentenced felony from committing any other future offenses. For example, say a person has robbed a bank multiple times and he is trying to commit it again but the authorities are preventing him doing that because they don’t want him to be sentenced a longer than what he is already sentenced for. Deterrence is a punishment for any criminal activity that is involved

When discussing how deterrence works at the environmental level, you first must know what deterrence is. At thefreedictonary.com the site says deterrence

the five sentencing philosophies are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation and restoration. Number one, Retribution. This is the act of taking revenge on criminal perpetrator. If an offender breaks the law he or she should be punished based on perceived need of vengeance. Two, Retribution. This corresponds to the principle model of sentencing of "just desert." It punishes based on the severity of the crime committed. The third philosophy is Incapacitation. The major goal is to provide protection for innocent members of society from offenders who might harm them. Incapacitation guarantees that offenders will not be a further threat to societies safety. Deterrence overall goal is to provide crime prevention and punishing a person

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.

American criminal justice system is a system of practices an institution of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring, and mitigating crime, and punishing those who violated laws with criminal behavior and rehabilitation efforts. Furthermore, executing people is an effective way of crime control policy. To the best of knowledge, there are no hidden costs that undermine its effectiveness.

As a society, prisoners terrify us. We are scared of the rigid box that we’ve forced them into through their portrayal in television, news, and other sources of media. The answer to this issue may lie in the punitive system of our country, that focuses on revenge instead of rehabilitation, and admits a recidivism rate of 76.6 percent. (Vera Institute of Technology, “The Price of Prisons”). With statistics that frightening, how can we be expected to treat criminals like functioning members of society when statistics prove otherwise? We must change the facts. Through the decrease of the maximum time in Solitary confinement, the

Our traditional criminal justice system needs to undergo fundamental rethinking, and ways to restructure the way it is operated. In most places these changes are starting to take place. The judicial system approaches to policing, sentencing, imprisonment, is changing in significant ways. Many prisoners (men/women) “leaving prison or jail face many challenges to successful re-integration in the community” (<http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2685368/>), and this can lead to recidivism.

Few decisions in the criminal justice system apply as much influence over the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of criminal offenders as the final sentencing decision. Judges have an extensive range of sentencing options. These options range from fines, restitution, and probation to incarceration in jail or prison. For much of the 20th century, criminal sentencing practices remained largely unchanged in the United States. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a practical revolution in criminal punishment processes. A number of different sentencing reforms have been recently expanded, resulting in a mix of different legal approaches to sentencing in the United States today. I will begin with a brief overview of sentencing

On the surface, crime and punishment seem to be of an unsophisticated matter. After all the belief is, if someone partakes in committing a crime, then that individual should be held responsible for his or her actions and suffer the consequences. However, when examined it is evident that crime and punishment are both multidimensional issues that derived from the racial prejudice which are justified by age-old preconceptions and beliefs about African Americans. The United States practices a dual criminal justice system that aids in the maintenance of the economic and social hierarchy we have set in place, based on the subjugation of African Americans, within the United States.

Criminal Justice in general terms refers to the agencies of government charged with enforcing law, adjudicating crime, and correcting criminal conduct in the society. The criminal justice system is essentially an instrument of social control used by the government. Society considers some behaviors so dangerous and destructive that it either tries to strictly control their occurrence or outlaws them outright. It is therefore, the job of the agencies of justice to prevent these behaviors by apprehending and punishing transgressors or deterring their future occurrence.

There is an ongoing problem in our society regarding punishment and responsibility. We, as a society, tend to look away when it comes to how criminals are being punished and maybe we should be paying more attention. Violence seems to be an integral part of our society, some raise their children with violence, we watch it on television, read it in newspapers and books and now we are even playing violent video games. When it comes to the judicial system the majority of citizens do not even know how individuals are being punished or if the punishment is too harsh, not severe enough or if the individual even needs punishment because what they may need is psychiatric help.

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