Punishment Philosophy

Punishment Philosophy

When crimes are committed, there are is the thought of why it was committed, and there is also the thought on how can justice be served. Offenders are labeled in one of the categories of punishment philosophy. Those categories are deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution (Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R., 2003). Each one of these punishments serve justice in a different way, and each is effective and essential in our justice system.

The first philosophy, deterrence is the justification for punishment. It is a way to discourage criminal activity by the use of punishment (Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R., 2003). Individuals make a conscious decision to commit a crime or not. One way to look at deterrence is setting the example by showing there will be a penalty for committing a crime. The criminal justice system aims to discourage people from committing crimes or continuing to commit crimes and other illegal activity. Unfortunately, deterrence does not work as it should, especially with the way things are in today's society, many people turn to a life of crime and people do not fear getting caught as they should.

The next philosophy of punishment is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a type of program that attempts to rehabilitate, or reform, an offender to dissuade them from committing future criminal activity (Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R., 2003). Rehabilitation is a less harsh form of punishment and is designed more to help the offender make a lifestyle change to prevent them from ending up in prison. This is also effective because prisons are becoming overcrowded, and if there are offenders that can be helped through rehabilitation it saves room for more serious offenders and saves tax payers money.

The final punishment philosophy is restoration. Restoration is a form of punishment that emphasizes on the restoration of losses which holds the offender directly responsible for his or her actions; it focuses on the needs of the victim and the victimized community affected by the crime, and offers closure for those affected (Meyer, J. F., & Grant, D. R., 2003). The offender must pay back the debt owed for his crimes through community service, and the return of any money that was during the criminal act stolen. Restoration feeds on the strength of the offender and the victims alike.