A punishment is the utmost priority in law and order as it is not only necessary to provide negative reinforcement to the wrong doer, that pushed them to never engage in the given act again, but it also helps in setting the example for other masses of the potential consequences that one might have to face, if the action is done and/or repeated. Punishment is intended to be a deterrent to future crime. Punishments are methods used to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again in the future. There are two types of punishment; positive and negative punishment. Positive punishment refers to presenting an aversive stimuli after a behavior has occurred. Negative punishment, a desirable stimulus is taken away after a behavior has occurred.
Punishment is effective in the short term if it is consistently applied after a behavior has occurred and if the punishment is implemented as soon as the undesirable behavior has occurred. However, punishment has drawbacks. Behaviors that change due to punishment are often temporary. This is because when the consequence is stopped, the behavior will likely to resume. Also, punishment specifies the behaviors that one must avoid. It does not tell us how we must change and the right action to do.
The purpose of punishment occurs because it helps to prevent and reduce future consequences of crime. Changes throughout history in sentencing and correction policies can be characterized by the emphasis on different goals. Hence, this explains why the criminal justice process involves the four major goals of punishment: retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. The term sentencing means declaring punishment or penalty to the offender that is decided by the court. In some states, juries are permitted to declare sentence to the respective offender, but in federal court, the judge declares the sentencing.
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Retribution can be defined as a deserved punishment since the punishment is only inflicted onto a person who has done harm or infringed on the rights of another person. Such a person needs to punish since he has caused harm to an individual, institution or property. Furthermore, the severity of the punishment should match the seriousness of the crime. Many criminal activities will bring benefits to an offender while causing a loss to the victim. Punishment is a justifiable approach to the retributive justice because the goal of rebalancing all unjust actions is attained. Ensuring that the offender also suffers loss and undergoes a correction system will reduce the crime rate. Furthermore, the fear of being punished through retributive justice will cause the offenders to think twice before committing a crime. The idea or fear being punished will deter people from committing crimes. The goal is to ensure that any wrongdoer suffers to an almost equal measure as the crime committed or wrong done. Therefore, supporting this goal ensures that people will stop engaging in criminal activities due to the fear of being punished in a way that causes them to suffer or experience pain.
Through deterrence, future crime is prevented by infusing fear among the likely criminals or section of the society. There are two types of deterrence general deterrence and specific deterrence. In former case the public learns of an individual defendant’s punishment, the public is theoretically less likely to commit a crime because of fear of the punishment the defendant experienced. In latter case when the system punish the criminal it is less likely that again crime will be committed by that person due to fear. Deterrence is a type of punishment method based on preventing crime by creating a fear for it. Deterrence seeks punishment for the felon according to the type and the harm it has caused. The main drawback of this type of refraining is that chances relapse of criminal behavior occurs in the individuals once they are out in the public under the influence of drugs or the similar situations.
Incapacitation is a type of punishment which aims at refraining crimes by keeping the felon off the society either by capital punishment or by keeping him/her in the prison life long. This is an inhumane practice because it takes away the right to life and doesn’t incorporate any correction by reform. The philosophy of incapacitation often involves physically restraining offenders from victimizing others. Incapacitation also means to prevent crimes and isolating offenders from the rest of society in prisons. When offenders are placed behind bars they are notable to victimize other people in society. Incapacitation is not limited to prison or jail, it also includes house arrest, or inpatient treatment programs.
Rehabilitation is based on reformation or correction of criminal behavior in the felon. This is more a preventive measure that stresses on corrective interventions for the felons rehabilitation for drug addicts, teaching of life, and employment skills to the lawbreakers along with the provision of parole. This is most flexible type of punishment and sometimes its tolerance doesn’t give the desired result. The basic idea of rehabilitation through imprisonment is that a person who has been incarcerated will never want to be sent back to prison after they have been set free. It is hoped that an inmate’s experiences while locked up will leave such a lasting impression that a former prisoner will do whatever it takes to avoid a second term.
In an effort to offer better rehabilitative services to the inmates, many prisons have begun providing psychiatrists to help deal with prisoners’ mental disorders and psychological issues. Rehabilitation is being used effectively today wherein prisoners are being vocationally trained in prisons to become better citizens of the society; and make a life for themselves when they get out as well as supporting their families financially.
The four goals of punishment, listed previously, are used to guide the sentencing process. From these goals, the mostly used goal for punishment at the time of sentencing is deterrence. Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to prevent people from offending crime. The deterrence is often compared with the term retribution. Retribution states that the consequence of doing crime is punishment and it is based on seriousness of wrongdoing. Hence, people should be punished severely to set examples for others. If someone will be punished severely, others will be afraid to break the law knowing they will face the similar treatment. In conclusion, the sentencing given for violent crimes should be stricter and should not induce others to commit violent crimes in the future. If deterrence is sentenced for punishment, then the justice is done to the victim and to common people. Deterrence sets a precedent for people to understand what will happen when they do that illegal behavior.
The deterrence theory in criminal justice emphasize that people are rational actors who weigh the relative costs and benefits of their specific actions and make conscious decisions about the best course of action. To this effect, it has been a common practice in the criminal justice system has been to make the unpleasant consequences of punishment more explicit so that fewer people will commit crime. The decision to commit a crime is a rational decision based on weighing the pleasures and pains of doing and thus, can be best countered through a deterrence-based system which increases the pain portion. Deterrence is at the core of the modern American criminal justice system and forms basis for strict punishments. There exists three types of deterrence: general, perceptual, and specific. The operation of the modern criminal justice system relies on the type of deterrence methods and a criminological perspective. However, most will agree to the fact that deterrence is a major factor in preventing criminal acts, but it is not the deciding factor. Most people do not commit crimes because of the sense and belief of that it is wrong to do so, and because they have to follow the norms of society as they are part of it.
The purpose of punishment is to create fear in the mind of criminals and individuals in the society about the disastrous effects of performing anti-social work and harming people in society. In addition, it prevents the criminals from harming the society as they are captured and put in prison. It also provides the opportunity for reforming the criminals and their rehabilitation by decreasing their sentence of punishment term and releasing them so that they can return to the normal life of the society with repentance, guilty feeling and without greed. But, out of the four goals of punishment, I think that rehabilitation should not be a consideration in the sentencing policy because in my opinion I don’t see rehabilitation as a form of punishment. It is systematically arranged process of treatment in order to restore the convicted offender. This treatment would include therapy or educational training. Which means rehabilitation only transforms a person’s criminal mind to a purified mind through certain activities. On the other hand, depending on the offender, if they are not responding to the rehabilitation efforts should then be punished with other means such as penalty (fine) and short-term imprisonment. If they are not responding to the rehabilitation, efforts should be given with special care and policies to rehabilitate them. Not all offenders can be rehabilitated in the same manner.
The background and characteristics of offenders are important in determining the sentence for the offender. The court considers the nature of the crime within the life background of the offender for determining sentence. Various types of punishments are available to judges. I think it is possible to satisfy all four goals simultaneously when sentencing a convicted defendant because the goal of each punishment is to prevent criminal offenses from occurring. Thus, the punishment should fit to the criminal. This involves who should get the punishment. The system of justice is set up considering both the nature of the crime and the criminal who’s committed. The four goals focuses on making the guilty person incapable of committing more crime. All four goals should consider the person and the situation of crime than the crime committed.
Based on sentencing guidelines, these guidelines influence, channelize, and dictate the punishment for decisions undertaken by trial courts rely on defendants. Overall, by using all four goals together in sentencing can punish the offender, but also give moral guidance of making the right decisions. Retribution is nothing but the punishment that the individual deserves because of the criminal activity that impacted the other person or the society. Rehabilitation is a constructive punishment where the offender is sent for therapy or vocational training with the goal of restoring the convicted. Incapacitation is preventing the offender to commit crimes by detainment in prison (life sentence). Deterrence is the goal to discourage the offender from committing the crime again in future by using severe punishment. The purpose of punishment is to stop the offender from doing any further crimes and to lessen the feeling of loss of the victim.
