Like all habitual patterns of social action, the structures of modern punishment have created a sense of their own inevitability and of the necessary rightness of the status quo. Our taken-for-granted ways of punishing have relieved us of the need for thinking deeply about punishment and what little thinking we are led to do is guided along certain narrowly formulated channels. Thus we are led to discuss penal policy in ways which assume the current institutional framework, rather than question it…. (David Garland 2010)
In society today if you break the law you are to be punished. Many criminal punishments vary from things such as a fine, community service, probation, or sometime even prison. Some may even ask why are the criminals being punished? The answer is very simple and it is the five purposes of punishment. The five purposes of punishment are incapacitation, deterrence, restitution, retribution, and rehabilitation. Each of these purpose has a different meaning, incapacitation is a felon in prison who cannot commit crimes while imprisoned. An executed felon can’t commit anymore crimes. Someone who is incapacitated doesn’t mean that they have to be executed it sometimes the felon has to put in maximum prison depending on the crime they have committed. The threat of punishment deters people from engaging in illegal acts is deterrence.
This punishment is to make others think about about murder. Restitution is a felon required to take some actions to at least partially return the victim. In the punishment retribution if the felon has harmed society, therefore the direct victim is entitled to inflict harm in return. The last punishment is rehabilitation which is the punishment in which changes the felon in order to make him or her a better citizen. With this punishment this can include things like mandatory vocational training, drug treatment, and maybe even counselling. When a punishment is justified that means it has met one or more of the criteria. It may even be reasons to oppose a punishment even if it does meet the criteria.
When dealing with capital punishment incapacitation and deterrence are the two main punishments that clearly satisfy. Also life imprisonment without parole does as well. When granted life imprisonment without parole there is a zero chance that the felon may break out and kill again not even to kill a guard or other inmates. Fair sentencing is for the victims. I feel as if offenders who commit crimes over and over should be removed from society. The penalty convicted on the person is based upon the crime. The discouragement or prevention of crimes through the fear of punishment. Individuals punishment to dissuade others from committing to crimes is an example. Some criminals commit crimes because of pain and pleasure. When the process of a criminal returning their normal conditions this can sometimes affect the society, victims, and it may even affect the offender. The Capital Punishment Project works toward the repeal of the death penalty in the United States through strategic litigation, advocacy, public education, and training programs for capital defense teams (Josh Rushing 2016).
“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?”
? Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Over the past few decades public support for the death penalty has been declined. Although according to the (Graham, 2013) there is still a good approximately 65% of the public that supports capital punishment. Many of the public support capital punishment because they feel as if you did the crime you, you do the time. There were other rules such as things like an eye for an eye or even a tooth for a tooth. An example of that rule is if you were to harm someone in any form your punishment may be you lose one or maybe even both of yours hands. They outcome of that punishment was that the society didn’t have to worry about you harming anyone else because you have no hands. The object of the punishment was to make the offender never want to commit another crime. Shorty after that law came another law by the name of expo facto law. The expo facto law is a law where if you have already committed the crime before it became a law then you can not be charged for it afterwards.
Some of the society agrees with capital punishment and some other disagree with capital punishment. However there are other forms of punishment other than capital punishment such as life without parole. The death penalty put innocent people lives at risk. When it comes to certain punishments race and place determines who lives and who dies. The United States pays many millions for the death role sentence. The lack of poor quality defense leaves many sentence to death. There is always a better way to help the families of the murder victims. Capital punishment goes almost every religion and it doesn’t deter crime. Capital punishment is reserved in the United States for the most dangerous murders being committed. Some crimes are so heinous and inherently wrong that they demand strict penalties.
“There is a certain right by which we many deprive a man of life, but none by which we may deprive him of death; this is mere cruelty.”
? Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human