RE Essay: Crime and Punishment
Explain the forms of punishment?
Protection:
In the prison system, imprisonment has the effect of confining prisoners, physically preventing them from committing crimes against those outside, i.e. protecting the community and society. The most dangerous criminals may be sentenced to life imprisonment, or even to irreparable alternatives, the death penalty, or castration of sexual offenders - for this reason of the common good.
Deterrence:
Deterrence means moving someone away from future wrongdoing, by making the punishment severe enough that the benefit gained from the offence is outweighed by the cost of the punishment.
Deterrence is a very common reason given for why someone should be punished. It is often believed that punishment, especially if made known to or even witnessed be the punisher's peers, can also deter them from committing similarly punishable offences, and thus serves a greater good preventively.
However, it is sometimes claimed that using punishment as a deterrent has the fundamental flaw that human nature tends to ignore the possibility of punishment until they are caught, and actually can be attracted even more to the 'forbidden fruit', or even for various reasons glorify the punisher, e.g. admiring a fellow for 'taking it like a man'. Furthermore, especially with children and depending on the issue, feelings of bitterness and resentment can arouse towards the punisher (parent) who threaten a child with punishment as it doesn't feel respected.
Restoration:
For minor offences, punishment may take the form of the offender "righting the wrong" for example, a vandal might be made to clean up the mess he has made.
In more serious cases, punishment in the form of fines and co ...