Issues: Crime and Punishment

Why Punish?

In all societies, when someone commits a crime, the society believes it has the right to punish the offender. The punishment can be given for a number of different reasons.

a) PROTECTION

A criminal might be put in jail to protect society. Whilst in jail, the rapist cannot continue to rape. Punishment could also be given to protect the criminal from other people or from himself.

b) DETERRENCE

The fact that there are punishments for people who break the law might deter or stop people from committing crime. If you know that if you get caught burgling a house you might think twice about committing the crime. Also if other people see that a certain criminal has been imprisoned for stealing cars, they might think twice about turning to crime, as they don't want that to happen to them.

c) RETRIBUTION

Many people believe that victims have a right to make criminals pay for the harm they have done. They pay by being punished. Punishment can therefore be a way of 'getting your own back' on the criminal.

d) REFORM

Some believe the punishment given to criminals should give the criminal the opportunity to change for the better. Punishment should enable criminals to leave their life of crime and should help them become more useful members of society. e.g.:

2266. The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: As far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.

(Catholic Catechism 1997)

e) RESTITUTION/ REPARATION

Some people believe a criminal should be punished simply because they have committed a crime against society. The price the criminal pays for committing the crime is the punishment.

The reason why you are punishing a criminal may effect the type of punishment you give out. If you think the most important thing is to protect society from the criminal, you would probably punish by putting the criminal in jail. If you think the most important reason for punishing a criminal is to reform them, you might not send the criminal to prison, but give them counselling, or make sure they got trained for a job etc.