Preview

Compare And Contrast The Four Goals Of Punishment

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
621 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare And Contrast The Four Goals Of Punishment
The four goals of punishment that a judge will consider, when imposing a sentence are: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution.
These four justifications of criminal punishment have varied in main ways. While closely associated with utilitarianism, the deterrence and incapacitation strive to reduce imminent crime. Deterrence struggles to generate crime more costly, so less crime would transpire. Incapacitation does not attempt to modify behavior through rising cost; but simply eradicate the offender from society. Because offenders that are in prison cannot cause harm to those of us that are still in society. Rehabilitative assumes crime is definite by social forces and not the choices of criminals. Retribution proclaims that punishments should be equal with the moral gravity of offenses.
General deterrence claims that cumulative risk of
…show more content…
Making sanctions severe, certain, immediate sends a message to citizens that crime would not be accepted. People respond to deterring incentives (Becker 1968).
According to deterrence, criminals are not any different than a law-abiding citizen. Criminals rationally maximize their own egotism subject to controls prices and incomes that appears in the marketplace and elsewhere” (Rubin 1980). By continually building up the certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishment that would help the utilitarian goal of crime reduction. Crime reduction is the most significant factor in punishment, under the utilitarian model.
Incapacitation does not involve any expectations about the criminal’s rationalism of the criminal’s behavior. Incarceration is valuable because the physical control of incarceration stops the commission of additional crimes against society throughout the length of the sentence. Under this model, reducing crime is the most important factor is setting

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The criminal justice system has many objectives which it intends to achieve through various punishments. One such objective is to deter social deviants by threatening them with the possibility of facing harsh punishment to pay for their crimes (Ferris & Stein, 2016). The criminal justice system also achieves retribution by responding to crime by retaliating or revenging the crime. The criminal justice system also incapacitates social deviants so as to protect members of the society through imprisonment or execution in some cases. Additionally, the system also intends to rehabilitate criminals so as to encourage them to refrain from socially deviant…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Retribution in our current time is being used as the base of the punishment which involves sentencing policies and guidelines. Everything depends on the criminal offence and the criminal’s prior record. Incapacitation eliminates the criminal’s ability to yet again commit another crime by physically restraining him/her. Deterrence is basically threatening to punish someone to prevent them from committing any type of crime. Rehabilitation is all about being able to grab the person that committed the crime and take them back to a stage in their life were they did not commit any crimes. Restoration is about being able to grab the person who committed the crimes in the past and establish that person back into the…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The main idea of punishment using the idea of utilitarianism is that punishment should be created solely for the reason of deterrence. There are two different levels of deterrence, and they are specific…

    • 859 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ron Fridell states, "The basic principles of deterrence are that punishments are necessary to deter crime and encourage law abiding behavior. Punishment must also fit the crime with more serious crimes requiring more serious punishments. (61) I agree with the author because capital punishment serves as a device to discourage certain forms of behavior by making the consequences of these actions unpleasant. Capital punishment is acceptable under those terms and it is necessity to the betterment of society. Micheal Kronwetter said, "No other punishment deters men so effectively…as the punishment of death."(19) As an example, murder peaked in 1990 with 2,200 deaths, when New York did not have the death penalty. In 1997, when capital punishment was reinstated the murders for the year totaled 767. Deterrence obviously worked in relation to these crimes. There seems to be a direct relationship between deterrence and the effects of capital…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Given current trends in society today, the next era of corrections will be a hybrid model between the rehabilitation and punitive model. Thousands of studies show the positive and negative components of each of these models. The rehabilitation model was not properly measured years prior due to the lack of technology and society was critiquing the process because they were not able to see the benefits of the program first hand. The punitive model on the other had has had plenty of evidence on its success in increasing incarceration rates and creating issues with overcrowding and lack of funding. Nevertheless, each model has something positive they can bring to the table.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Incapacitation: offenders are not rehabilitated. Criminals are put in jail not to teach them the consequence of their actions but to bring them under such an environment where they would not be able to engage in crime. Imprisonment incapacitates the prisoner by physically removing them from the society where they have committed the crime. Back-to-back life sentences, three-strikes sentencing, and other habitual offender laws are all examples of incapacitation.…

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are five goals of sentencing in the United States Court system, retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation and restoration. Each goal represents a quasi-independent sentencing philosophy and they each hold different and individual purposes.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Moving forward, we examine the rehabilitation view. This view of punishment fails the guilt requirement because the criminal justice system would have to sort out all the potential criminals from society and attempt to rehabilitate them and attempt to make them into a better person, which would be nearly impossible. It also fails the equal treatment requirement because each criminal would require a different form of…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Philosophy Of Sentencing

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The complexities of human nature, emotions, thought, morals and ethics have been debated for centuries, and the dilemma of sentencing another human to a form of corporal punishment, incarceration or death, requires a firm foundation in the laws of the land, tempered by years of study and dedication to the law one has sworn to uphold. The several reasons for sentencing of a crime is: Revenge, for an actual or perceived need for vengeance on a violation, usually one that is very personal and emotional in nature. Incapacitation, which is to prevent the criminal from repeating crimes against society by placing them into a correctional facility on a long term or permanent basis. Restoration, is a form of sentencing when the convening authority is attempting to protect the victims by helping them to feel safe and secure. Deterrence is a sentence where the courts attempt to prevent the subject of a crime from offending again. Retribution, which is probably the oldest reason for sentencing was utilized for equal punishment to the crime, drawing from the old adage “eye for an eye”. Lastly is the sentence of rehabilitation, which in societies modern view, the ideal and preferred sentence,…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentencing Paper

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Punishment can be broke down into four fundamental objectives. These objectives are deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, and incapacitation.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentencing Paper

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My theory for the reasoning of punishment has two main goals which are to provide justice for the victims and a lesson to the convicted. When a judge sits in preparation to initiate sentencing they have to go through numerous thought processes because of the uniqueness of every case. Considerations such as what are they trying to accomplish with the punishment and who would benefit from such a sentence. General factors like the age of the convicted and the heinousness of the crime committed matters as well. When a criminal is sentence it is reasoned by retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, or rehabilitation.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Determinate Sentencing

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The purpose of sentencing: the “deserved infliction of suffering on evildoers and “the prevention of crime.” There four fundamental philosophies surrounding the purpose of sentencing. First, the oldest and most common is retribution. Retribution is the philosophy that those who commit criminal acts should be punished based on the severity of the crime and that no other factors need be considered. The second philosophy is deterrence. In deterrence, the goal of sentencing is to prevent future crimes. Deterrence takes a general and specific form. General deterrence is that by punishing one person, others will be dissuaded from committing a similar crime. Specific deterrence assumes thart an individual, after being punished once for a certain act,…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The four fundamental philosophies surrounding the purpose of sentencing are retribution, deterrence, Incapacitation, and Rehabilitation. Retribution is the belief that those who commit criminal acts should be punished according to the seriousness of the crime and that no other circumstances are considered. It relies on the principle of just deserts, which holds that the severity of the punishment must be in proportion of the severity of the crime. Deterrence is the thought that if the punishment given is severe enough that it will stop the potential criminal from committing the crime or to be a repeat offender, so rather than seeking only to punish the offender this strategy is to try to sentence to prevent future crimes along with incapacitation and rehabilitation. Incapacitation is the third philosophy that is a belief that if the criminal is detained for a crime, thereby being separated from the community reduces the criminal activity and once released will not be as likely to be a repeat offender. Rehabilitation is the fourth and final philosophy that surrounds the purpose of sentencing, some believe that society is best served when those who break the law are not simply punished but are provided with resources needed to eliminate the need or want to engage in criminal behavior activity. There are three steps to help determining sentencing. When public opinions move toward more severe strategies of retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation, legislatures have responded by asserting their power of over determining sentencing guidelines. The Legislature passes sentencing Laws; this specifies the terms of indeterminate sentencing. An Indeterminate term of incarceration is in which a judge determines the minimum and maximum terms of imprisonment. Only a jury can hand down the decision of the death penalty. When the minimum term is reached the prisoner becomes eligible to be paroled. Then there is determinate sentencing, this is a period of incarceration that is…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Goals Of Sentencing

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For instance, retribution is focused on retaliation; and is not particularly concerned with mitigating future crime. In contrast, deterrence is focused on preventing future crime, but its effectiveness as a general deterrence remains unproven. Likewise, rehabilitation is aimed at preventing future crime, but historically, it has failed to mitigate crime rates. On the other hand, incapacitation seeks to deprive the offender of his ability to commit future crimes, but, suggests, that offenders are incorrigible. The aforementioned sentencing goals are related to distinct sentencing models. These include determinate sentencing, where “state statues determine the length of incarceration” (Zhang, et al, 2014, 694); and indeterminate sentencing, which sets a range of time of confinement, which is dependent of the offenders conduct while incarcerated. Sentencing models are usually accompanied concurrent and or consecutive sentences. Under concurrent sentences, and offender serves a prescribed amount of time of confinement for multiple crimes committed together. In contrast, consecutive sentences require offenders to serve jail sentences for each crime separately, one after the…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentencing Philosophies

    • 353 Words
    • 1 Page

    The four fundamental philosophies surrounding the purpose of sentencing are; retribution, this philosophy is the belief that those who commit criminal acts should be punished according to the seriousness of the crime and that no other circumstances are considered, deterrence, this strategy is the thought that if the punishment given is severe enough that it will stop the potential criminal from committing the crime or to be a repeat offender. Incapacitate is the third philosophy that is a belief that if the criminal is detained for a crime, thereby being separated from the community reduces the criminal activity and once released will not be as likely to be a repeat offender. Rehabilitation is the fourth and final philosophy that surrounds the purpose of sentencing, some believe that society is best served when those who break the law are not simply punished but are provided with resources needed to eliminate the need or want to engage in criminal…

    • 353 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays