Answer

Punishment Goals

There are different reasons why criminals should be punished in society. For example; to prevent the occurrence of crime, teach the criminals or promote justice to the victims of a crime. Retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation are punishment goals that need to be understood by everyone in a society in order to aid in understanding the difference between punishment and correction.

In an occurrence of criminal behaviour, a criminal is punished in response to the weight of the crime. This type of punishment goal is referred to as retribution. In retribution, criminals are subjected to punishment in relation to the solemnity of the crime and normally the victims are compensated. Retribution can be expressed as Retaliation law as crime is avenged. The offender and the victim both should be present before the law enforcers when imposing punishment. This concept is different from deterrence.

Deterrence, on the other hand, is the act of creating fear in society by showing people the consequences of crime. It was established as a punishment goal because its proponents assumed that people involved in crime after scheming the consequences of their actions. Therefore, it was established to create fear and doubt from the consequences of a crime. Most people tend to stay out of criminal acts as they are aware of the consequences. As deterrence restricts people from committing a crime, incapacitation restricts criminals.

Restriction of a criminal’s liberty and prerogatives which usually a criminal would enjoy in the society is referred to as incapacitation. Criminals are subjected to incapacitation in order to avert them from involving themselves in future crimes. The effectiveness of incapacitation lies in the basis that a criminal is removed from the community to prison or put under watch by the law enforcers. 

Rehabilitation can be expressed simply as punishment through training and educating criminals for a long period of time before they are qualified of coming back to society. It was established as a proxy for deterrence and retribution. However, it involves offenders being subjected to a long period of training and is usually referred to as a more humane form of punishment.

Punishment is an action aimed at avoiding offenders from repeating the same crimes in future. For example, punishment goals such as retribution, deterrence and incapacitation are punishments. On the other hand, correction is a way of preventing the occurrence of crime in future. For example, in rehabilitation, a criminal is trained to be fit for living in society. 

Criminal cases exist in every community, therefore there’s a need to apply the different types of punishment goals as described in this paper. Consequences of punishment should be imposed after the law enforcement team understands when to impose punishment or corrections. New ways are needed to study the state at which crime is either punished or corrected.