Edward Romero Professor Blay AJ 101 22 Oct 2014 Role of punishment in the Criminal Justice System Since the birth of our country non-law abiding citizens have plagued our society which led to the creation and development of our criminal justice system that administers punishment for any crimes committed with-in our society. Punishment for crimes committed is utilized by the criminal justice system as a deterrence that can result in less crimes being committed in the future. The criminal justice system ensures that the correct punishment handed down to a defendant is appropriate for the crime committed which in turn shows future lawbreakers that their crimes will not be tolerated and will be dealt with appropriately. Depending on the crime committed, the evidence collected and how it is presented to a jury of our peers the defendant is usually sentenced to incapacitation (incarceration/capital punishment) or rehabilitation. The criminal justice system ensures that everyone that commits a crime is punished as a result of the crime they commit.
3. Putting to death a criminal can not "un-do" the crimes they have committed. Perhaps a better use of funding could be put toward prevention of similar crimes by potential offenders and training special forces to detect threats. 4. There is always the possibility that innocents could be convicted and put to death.
I will attempt to prove that the benefit of merely punishing criminals is minimal and that a justice system that prioritises rehabilitation would have far more overall benefit to society as a whole. A third important aspect to the justice system is keeping dangerous and violent individuals off the streets. This often seems to be equated with punishment, while the two are actually quite distinct and separate aims. I agree that there is often a need to isolate dangerous people from society at large, the question here is what our aims for the individual should be while they are in isolation. Emotion (1) Of the arguments one tends to hear in favour of prioritising punishment, the most persuasive are often emotional arguments.
There punishment needs to be in proportion to the crime that was committed. Deterrence is the philosophy of a way of preventing crimes by threatens a punishment. With this philosophy society is making a statement, they are setting an example that certain actions will not be tolerated. Incapacitation is the philosophy that preventing crime by detaining wrongdoers in prison. This is taking them out of society and reducing their ability to commit any other crimes.
In this paper I will tell you what justice means to me in general as well as what it means to me as a future juvenile probation officer. In general, justice to me means that a criminal must be punished for the crime that he/she has committed. To be just and fair, the punishment must fit the crime. For instance, you would not want to seek the death penalty for someone who only committed burglary and you would not want to give someone only one to two years in prison for murder. The punishment should also increase for repeat offenders.
The punishment is to protect the community from the offender by keeping them off the street, and trying to reconcile if this person wants to change for the better, in essence to also promote the rehabilitation option to the offender which could help denounce the conduct of the offender, but ultimately for the offender to recognize the harm done to the victim of the crime and the community. The offender needs to understand the damage that has been done by their crime, and understand their actions affect everyone around them. The punishment applies to the offender per the crime committed. If the offender committed a federal crime then they go to a federal prison, if the offender is only sentenced to a year of time they will go to a jail, and for almost every other crime they would go to a state prison. The prison whether it be state or federal its main objectives in preventing and controlling criminal behavior and acts.
A life of incarceration without the possibility of parole is a realistic alternative for the small number of offenders who are likely to be executed in any given year. Justice does not mandate death but justice does request that murderers be punished. If punishment is reasonable for returning justice and the moral order, it does not necessarily follow that capital punishment is moral. “The death penalty only allows us to extend the pain. It allows us to continue to blame one another, to turn against one another, to learn to hate better”.
There were several reasons behind this. One reason was to divert ones who would normally have no issue in committing a crime and for ones who have already committed crimes after their release not likely to return and serve a sentence. Penitentiaries also serve as a place to face punishment when one has committed a crime as well as encourage any type of personal reform for their actions. Penitentiaries are especially used to protect innocent people from these one who have committed crimes (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011). American prisons have two different types of models.
Like the item says, 'functionalist sociologists focus on how far individuals accept the norms and values of society.' Durkheim blames people not being fully integrated into society’s norms and values as to why they commit crime. So he said once people have served their time for their crime, they should be reintegrated. It’s a strength that Durkheim suggests them being reintegrated as it means they’re less likely to reoffend if they feel they belong to their society and do not look for status through crime. However, interactionists would say that agents of social control cause crime, not the society you are in.
Specific deterrence generally targets individuals who have been punished or currently being punished for a criminal act with the hope of preventing them from committing crimes in the near future. General deterrence separates itself in that it works to prevent people from engaging in criminal acts by setting an example. In order for the deterrence doctrine to present itself in a plausible manner, effectiveness of punishment must be indentified. Bentham and Beccaria discuss reasoning to why the deterrence doctrine upholds according to these three terms known as certainty, severity and celerity of punishment. Each category differs yet all remain equally as important in order for deterrence to occur.