Essays on Criminal Punishment

Theoretical Essay

In the world of law punishment (alternative name – penalty) is considered as an “infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for misdeed (i.e., the transgression of a law or command).”1 Penalty may take different forms and vary from forced labor, flogging, body mutilation, fines and imprisonment to the capital punishment. The punishment has been very retributive, mostly in the form of revenge, during the pre-modern ages and usually the prosecution was executed by the victims or their families. There was not any proportion between the quantity and quality of wrongdoing and the punishment. The ...

Introduction

Criminal punishments in the society are approved by many as a necessary action against those who commit crimes. Despite this universal appreciation of punishment, various theories have different justifications for such punishments. The Kantian approach differs from the utilitarianism approach in justifying criminal punishments. This paper analyzes how the Kantian justification for criminal punishment differs from the utilitarian approach,

Research design and Method

This research will be based on the historical concept. It entails analyzing the characteristics of the two theories and determining how best they could justify criminal punishment in the society as a means of punishing unjustified behavior. It will employ ...

Proponents of utilitarianism envision a situation where human actions are judged by their consequences. According to Bentham, the best moral action must always maximize utility. Simply put, actions should ensure they bring about the greatest happiness among human beings. An action that does not promote happiness among people therefore does not meet this threshold. Bentham further argues that such actions must involve the two aspects of happiness; quality and quantity. Consequences, therefore, not legality, should form the basis of justification of actions by humans. Stuart Mill supports this proposition by arguing that bringing or increasing pleasure among humans should ...

QUESTION 1

Mary is a Conscientious Moral Agent. Identify a moral argument or arguments that Mary can apply in this case. Use the facts of this case to explain the moral reasoning and moral principle(s) that Mary applies in this case.

ANSWER: Given the condition in which Mary was in, it is important that she addresses the situation as impartial as she can be. In this particular case, she should therefore forget that she is the mother of one of the students in the place of employment of one of their patients in the hospital who was having psychological health issues. ...

Question One: Four Modern Sentencing Options

Sentences are punishments for convicted defendants. The prescription of punishments for crimes is found in both federal and state statutes. There are four traditional sanctions that can be imposed in the modern criminal justice system are; the death penalty, imprisonment, probation, and fines. They are discussed in the ensuing sections.

Death Penalty, this is the most extreme sentence option. In the United States, 38 states have laws that can impose capital punishment. Majority of these states use lethal injection while some use electrocution to end the life of the accused. The death penalty is usually reserved for very serious ...

Introduction

Universal suffrage is one of the cornerstones of democratic governance. Suffrage enables people to exercise their democratic rights without any contravention. One of the primary democratic rights is that of voting. A truly democratic nation is one where all citizens have the freedom to vote in any way that they like and for any candidate that they desire without oppression. In the United States, one issue of concern in regard to this democratic right has risen up in recent years. The issue has been subjected to intensive debate across the political divide as well as in the society. The ...

Part one: Punishment of offenders

The justice correction system pay an important role in the society. One significant role which the corrections systems undertakes is punishing offenders (Beccaria, 1996). The concept of punishment and retributions has been part of the American justice system for a while. In analyzing criminal punishment, a number of questions arise. First, what is criminal punishment? Criminal punishment or punishment of offenders is the imposition of hardship to counter some delinquent behavior. Some of the authorized punishments which can be imposed include monetary fines, community service, restitution, prison sentencing and even death. Secondly, what is the purpose of punishments? According to the ...

Introduction

Over the years, punishment has been used as a form of deterring crime. Many of the deterrence theories have always been implicit in writings about punishment for decades. The origins of deterrence theory can be traced back to centuries when the death penalty was imposed often and for many offenses, some of which were quite trivial (Fagan & Meares, 2008). As such, deterrence theory came about when societies for the first time felt the obligation to offer rational justifications for the use of death penalty while rejecting other forms of judicial violence such as stoning, torture and the like. According to ...

Research Paper Outline

Punishment, crime, and poverty have long been linked together during criminological and sociological investigations. These links are strengthened by the fact that poverty causes deprivation of basic and luxurious needs and this in turn breeds the temptation to commit crime hence victimizing the concerned parties in the process. Scholars in the social sciences have therefore resorted to grouping people according to their socioeconomic statuses in a bid to monitor their motivations and behaviors. These studies have ended up associating high crime rates with poverty and socioeconomic inequality. These crimes then bring up the subject of punishment and its role in ...

Arguably, there are various theories that justify the criminal punishment. As a matter of fact, punishment is very crucial in the society since it is seen as a corrective tool. Punishment entails the strategic and international infliction of suffering and pain on people who are guilty of certain crime. Scholars assert that utilitarian and retributivist theories help in elaborating on the justification of criminal punishment. What are debatable are the differences that the theories bring out when justifying punishment. Punishment of its own necessitates a reasonable form of justification, especially in terms of moral and comprehensive political philosophy. The rationalization and justification ...

Should Criminals Be Punished With Lengthy Jail Terms Or Re-educated And Rehabilitated Using Community Service Programs For Instance, Before Being Reintroduced to Society?

Public opinion concerning criminals and punitive actions has always been one of the most disputable, arguable and ambiguous issues. At the time when some groups of people speak about the necessity of lengthy jail terms, the others believe in rehabilitation and effectiveness of treatment. In my opinion, if we want to achieve positive results, eradicate evil and prevent future crimes, incarceration should be viewed as a necessary and an inevitable punitive action.

In terms of this paper, ...