The purpose of punishment

[Argeus the Paladin]

There was a thread back in another forum where I post, that deals with the fact that a certain rapist got away with 10 years of jail time. This led to much anger from the community, some suggesting at least 25 years or life sentence, some suggesting death, some others suggesting castration, still others suggesting carrying out Unit 731-esque experiments on them.

This brings to the question: Ultimately what is the purpose of punishment? Is it to retribute upon the criminals? To deter others from doing the same? Or just simply by keeping them away from the public so that they could no longer harm innocent people as they had?

[Gordon Freynman]

This brings to the question: Ultimately what is the purpose of punishment? Is it to retribute upon the criminals? To deter others from doing the same? Or just simply by keeping them away from the public so that they could no longer harm innocent people as they had?

Pretty much all three, although I think the last one is the main reason.

[Monarchist]

Punishment exists to show someone that he shouldn't have done something immoral. Deterrence is a factor for anyone else who might be slinking about in the shadows, thinking of doing the same. We must hammer in any nails that stick out, and the blow must be brutal. Give peace a chance sounds nice, until your daughter is tortured to death.

[vecordia]

Two kind of punishment.

1. Social necessity.
As you guys saying, main purpose is to keep balance between morality and justice which enables moreless normal life each one of us in society. From this point of view, its necessary for common law.

2. Individual (neither moral / justified)
You walk trough the street, and suddenly someone hits you in the face and kicks you. What would you do? Selfdefence, hit him too and kick him too, make him pain (perhaps more pain than you deceived). And vice versa - you alone attack someone to punish him for your private sort of reasons, totally distant from moral issues, from social point of view unjustified, brutal, bad etc. Pretty much selfish.

[Arch-hereticK]

Power is asserted through the infliction of suffering, most power-groups label the demonstrations of their dominance with friendly words like "punishment" or "justice".

"The purpose of punishment" is power, as is all violence.

[Poach]

Punishment exists because there are those who hold no regard for order or society, and would break the rules when it suits them if they knew they would not face any sort of retribution. Law is all that exists between society and chaos, punishment enforces the law.

A more interesting discussion would be what sort of punishment is most effective, or what is warranted. I, for example, am disgusted that a man who raped someone is merely held in a prison for 25 years, a prison where he gets a clean bed, 3 meals a day and an overall good standard of living. In the UK, a prisoner in one of Her Majesty's Holiday Camps has a much better standard of living than a soldier stationed at a UK base, how is that fair? How is that just punishment for his crimes?

We also pay for all of this. Why should a criminal be kept in such a comfortable place out of the taxpayers pocket?

[Tacitursa]

If you removed all prisoners and there cost's from countries god knows how many hospitals/schools could be built and poor area's improved. The prisons themselfs could be converted into schools/hospitals even.

I think prison islands are the way, The UK should stick all it's prisoners on the falklands and dont let them leave. Would be fairly easy/cheap to keep them there just use the same tagging system prisons already use but make it impossible to take off and have a small tracker inside it incase someone decides to go for a long swim. Let them maintain themselfs and farm there own food etc.

People that commited serious crimes such as murder/rape should never leave and lesser offenders should be able to leave after 5-10 years depending on the crime.

I just think prison is a joke for most offenders. I know someone thats been inside 3-4 times for small periods of 6 months to a year. And he was playing playstation or football at break and had a tv and radio in his room. Got pocket money to visit the prison shop to buy all kinds of luxuries such as crisps , chocolate , fizzy drinks etc etc

I fail to see the punishment. Especially if your poor and dinners consist of beans on toast and you cant afford a playstation. Prison must look great for poor lower class people.

[Arch-hereticK]

Give every criminal a gun and put them on an island, they might work together to make a new society or they might "disapear".

[vecordia]

Give every criminal a gun and put them on an island, they might work together to make a new society or they might "disapear".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234435/

Idea is good, seriously
That would be truly punishing and creative, inspiring to find new punishment purposes.
Little offtopic.

[Tacitursa]

This is what we should do with prisoners http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110678/

One of my favourite movies

[Helm]

It depends if you're talking about justice or revenge.

[Strelok]

I think the purpose of punishment could adhere to the principle of blind justice. An eye for an eye. It should not be used as a tool for the vengeance of victims, IMO.

[Raglan]

as a law student we get taught that there are several purposes to punishment, and these can differ with the circumstances

1. Incapacitation: A felon in prison cannot commit crimes while imprisoned. An executed felon cannot commit a crime ever again.

2. Deterrence: The threat of punishment deters people from engaging in illegal acts.


3. Restitution: The felon is required to make some sort of 'repayment' to the victim, or their family



4. Retribution: The felon harmed society; therefore society (or the direct victims) is entitled to inflict harm in return.


5. Rehabilitation: The punishment changes the felon in order to make him a better citizen afterwards. (The punishment can include mandatory vocational training, counseling, drug treatment, etc.)

[eXistenZ]

A punishment has in my view two purposes:

1) to protect the community

2) to let the criminal learn something of it, so he won't do it a second time.

1+2 is the reason why i think life sentence (or the symbolic 300 year or whatever)is useless. You keep the heavy criminals alive in a good dry cabbin, with food and entertainment, while innocent people are homeless, don't have acces to clean water, have to live from a dollar a day etc...

There are too many people on this planet anyway, so filtering out the bad ones by capital punishment isn't bad. When a dog bites someone, it gets put down. And that while you can train dogs. humans are a lot more difficult to help them get rid of their bad habbits.

[Lordinquisitor]

A punishment has in my view two purposes:

1) to protect the community

2) to let the criminal learn something of it, so he won't do it a second time.

1+2 is the reason why i think life sentence (or the symbolic 300 year or whatever)is useless. You keep the heavy criminals alive in a good dry cabbin, with food and entertainment, while innocent people are homeless, don't have acces to clean water, have to live from a dollar a day etc...

There are too many people on this planet anyway, so filtering out the bad ones by capital punishment isn't bad. When a dog bites someone, it gets put down. And that while you can train dogs. humans are a lot more difficult to help them get rid of their bad habbits.

He`s right.

Punishment should try to teach people a lesson, as long as the crime is minor.

If someone is guilty of something serious he should be killed in order to keep the human race safe.

[Banana Jelly]

A punishment has in my view two purposes:

1) to protect the community

2) to let the criminal learn something of it, so he won't do it a second time.

1+2 is the reason why i think life sentence (or the symbolic 300 year or whatever)is useless. You keep the heavy criminals alive in a good dry cabbin, with food and entertainment, while innocent people are homeless, don't have acces to clean water, have to live from a dollar a day etc...

There are too many people on this planet anyway, so filtering out the bad ones by capital punishment isn't bad. When a dog bites someone, it gets put down. And that while you can train dogs. humans are a lot more difficult to help them get rid of their bad habbits.

Then blame China, India, Bangladesh for that.