Punishment
When a crime is committed, most agree that is cannot go unpunished. There are several ways of dealing with the consequences of crime, in the form of punishment. The four justifications of punishment that will be discussed are retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and societal protection. Retribution refers to the act of punishment through which society makes the criminal suffer in an amount that is proportional to the amount of suffering undergone by the victim. Deterrence uses punishment as a way to depress criminal activity. Rehabilitation is a method used to prevent further crime in an individual that may be more likely inclined to be involved in criminal activity. Societal protection refers to the use of imprisonment or execution in order to make the offender incapable of committing further crimes, and thus, protecting society from those future crimes (Macionis, 2006).
Retribution is the oldest type of justification, and it is thought to restore the moral balance in society. In a study conducted by Brad Kelln, there were four conditions tested, when assessing what method works best to elicit compliance in a transgressor. With using retribution in one condition, it was found that this method yielded the least amount of compliance (Kelln, 1999). This finding is consistent amongst researchers, and it has been accepted that retribution is the least effective type of punishment to deter crime. Furthermore, Christina Lee describes retribution as being ineffective and potentially unfair, due to the insanity defence taken by some criminals. Those who suffer from a mental illness cannot be fully held responsible for their actions even if those actions are criminal. If retribution states that the offender should suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime, then retribution denies the mentally ill the chance to be treated with mercy and empathy (Lee, 2007).
The theory of deterrence assumes that all individuals are informed and are calculators of...
View Full Essay