Theories of Punishment-A Socio-Legal View - Author - Shaswata Dutta
Theories of Punishment-A Socio-Legal View - Author - Shaswata Dutta
Theories of Punishment-A Socio-Legal View - Author - Shaswata Dutta
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IIntro d uc tio n : Each society has its own way of social control for which it frames certain laws and also mentions the sanctions with them. These sanctions are nothing but the punishments. The first thing to mention in relation to the definition of punishment is the ineffectiveness of definitional barriers aimed to show that one or other of the proposed justifications of punishments either logically include or logically excluded by definition. Punishment has the following features: # It involves the deprivation of certain normally recognized rights, or other measures considered unpleasant # It is consequence of an offence # It is applied against the author of the offence # It s applied by an organ of the system that made the act an offence The kinds of punishment given are surely influenced by the kind of society one lives in. Though during ancient period of history punishment was more severe as fear was taken as the prime instrument in preventing crime. But with change in time and development of human mind the punishment theories have become more tolerant to these criminals. Debunking the stringent theories of punishment the modern society is seen in loosening its hold on the criminals. The present scenario also witnesses the opposition of capital punishment as inhumane, though it was a major form of punishing the criminals earlier. But it may also be observed till recently the TALIBANS used quite a harsh method for suppression. The law says that it does not really punish the individual but punishes the guilty mind. As punishment generally is provided in Criminal Law it becomes imperative on our part to know what crime or an offence really is. Here the researcher would like to quote Salmonds definition of crime: Crime is an act deemed by law to be harmful for the society as a whole though its immediate victim may be an individual. He further substantiates his point of view through the following illustration a murderer injures primarily a particular victim, but its blatant disregard of human life puts it beyond a mater of mere compensation between the murderer and the victims family. Thus it becomes very important on behalf of the society to punish the offenders. Punishment can be used as a method of educing the incidence of criminal behavior either by deterring the potential offenders or by incapacitating and preventing them from repeating the offence or by reforming them into law-abiding citizens. Theories of punishment, contain generally policies regarding theories of punishment namely: Deterrent, Retributive, Preventive and Reformative. Punishment, whether legal or divine, needs justification. Because the justification of legal punishment has been given greater consideration by philosophers than has the justification of divine punishment by theologians, the philosophical concepts and 'theories of punishment (i.e. the justifications) will be used as a basis for considering divine punishment. Many a time this punishment has been termed as a mode of social protection. The affinity of punishment with many other measures involving deprivation by the state morally recognized rights is generally evident. The justifiability of these measures in particular cases may well be controversial, but it is hardly under fire. The attempt to give punishment the same justification for punishment as for other compulsory measures imposed by the state does not necessarily involve a particular standpoint on the issues of deterrence, reform or physical incapacitation. Obviously the justification in terms of protection commits us to holding that punishment may be effective in preventing social harms through one of these methods. As punishments generally punish the guilty mind it becomes very important on the part of the researcher to what crime really is. But it is quite difficult on the part of the researcher to say whether or not there must be any place for the traditional forms of punishment. In todays world the major question that is raised by most of the penologist is that how far are present humane methods of punishment like the reformative successful in their objective. It is observed that prisons have become a place for breeding criminals not as a place of reformation as it was meant to be. It may be clearly said that the enactment of any law brings about two units in the society- the law-abiders and the law-breakers. It is purpose of these theories of punishment to by any means transform or change these law-breakers to the group of abiders. To understand the topic the researcher would like to bring about a valid relation between crime, punishment and the theories. For that purpose the project is divided into three parts: # Crime and Punishment # Theories of punishment # Conclusion The researcher due to certain constraints of limited time and knowledge is unable to cove the area of the evolution of these theories separately but would include them in the second chapter. The researcher would now like to move on to his first chapter in which he would be vividly discussing crime and punishment. The researcher in his first draft had included the chapter on the evolution of the theories from the early ages to the modern era, but due to certain limitations included them and discussed them during the due course of the project. Crime A nd P unis hme nt Crime : n., & v.t. 1. Act (usu. grave offence) punishable by law; shameful act 2. charge with or convict of offence. P unis hme nt: n. Punishing or being punished; penalty inflicted on the offender; P unis h: 1. Cause to suffer for offence, chastise, inflict penalty on offender for his crime. One can surely observe how closely are crime and punishment related. The researcher would in this chapter precisely like to stress on this point itself. Crime is behaviour or action that is punishable by criminal law. A crime is a public, as opposed to a moral, wrong; it is an offence committed against (and hence punishable by) the state or the community at large. Many crimes are immoral, but not all actions considered immoral are illegal. In different legal systems the forms of punishment may be different but it may be observed that all arise out of some action or omission. All these constitute all moral as well as legal wrongs such as murder, rape, littering, theft, trespass and many more. As
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sending the criminals to the prisons the society is in turn trying to prevent the offender from doing any other crime and thus protecting the society from any anti-social elements. Fitchte in order to explain this in greater details puts forward the an illustration, An owner of the land puts an notice that trespassers would be prosecuted. He does not want an actual trespasser and to have the trouble and expense of setting the law in motion against him. He hopes that the threat would render any such action unnecessary; his aim is not to punish trespass but to prevent it. But if trespass still takes place he undertakes prosecution. Thus the instrument which he devised originally consist of a general warning and not any particular convictions Thus it must be quite clear now by the illustration that the law aims at providing general threats but not convictions at the beginning itself. Even utilitarian such as Bentham have also supported this theory as it has been able to discourage the criminals from doing a wrong and that also without performing any severity on the criminals. The present day prisons are fallout of this theory. The preventive theory can be explained in the context of imprisonment as separating the criminals from the society and thus preventing any further crime by that offender and also by putting certain restrictions on the criminal it would prevent the criminal from committing any offence in the future. Supporters of this theory may also take Capital Punishment to be a part of this theory. A serious and diligent rehabilitation program would succeed in turning a high percentage of criminals away from a life of crime. There are, however, many reasons why rehabilitation programs are not commonly in effect in our prisons. Most politicians and a high proportion of the public do not believe in rehabilitation as a desirable goal. The idea of rehabilitation is considered mollycoddling. What they want is retribution, revenge, punishment and suffering. Thus one an easily say that preventive theory though aiming at preventing the crime to happen in the future but it still has some aspects which are questioned by the penologists as it contains in its techniques which are quite harsh in nature. The major problem with these type of theories is that they make the criminal more violent rather than changing him to a better individual. The last theory of punishment being the most humane of all looks into this aspect. R e fo rma tiv e T he o ry : But that is the beginning of a new story--the story of the gradual Renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his Passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new Unknown life. The author of the above excerpt in this concluding paragraph underlines the basic principle of the reformative theory. It emphasizes on the renewal of the criminal and the beginning of a new life for him. The most recent and the most humane of all theories is based on the principle of reforming the legal offenders through individual treatment. Not looking to criminals as inhuman this theory puts forward the changing nature of the modern society where it presently looks into the fact that all other theories have failed to put forward any such stable theory, which would prevent the occurrence of further crimes. Though it may be true that there has been a greater onset of crimes today than it was earlier, but it may also be argued that many of the criminals are also getting reformed and leading a law-abiding life all-together. Reformative techniques are much close to the deterrent techniques. Reform in the deterrent sense implied that through being punished the offender recognized his guilt and wished to change. The formal and impressive condemnation by society involved in punishment was thought to be an important means of bring about that recognition. Similarly, others may be brought to awareness that crime is wrong through another's punishment and, as it were, 'reform' before they actually commit a crime. But, although this is indeed one aspect of rehabilitation, as a theory rehabilitation is more usually associated with treatment of the offender. A few think that all offenders are 'ill' and need to be 'cured' but the majority of criminologists see punishment as a means of educating the offender. This has been the ideal and therefore the most popular theory in recent years. However, there is reason to believe this theory is in decline and Lord Windlesham has noted that if public opinion affects penal policy, as he thinks it does, then there will be more interest shown in retribution in the future. This theory aims at rehabilitating the offender to the norms of the society i.e. into law-abiding member. This theory condemns all kinds of corporal punishments. These aim at transforming the law-offenders in such a way that the inmates of the penocorrectional institutions can lead a life like a normal citizen. These prisons or correctional homes as they are termed humanly treat the inmates and release them as soon as they feel that they are fit to mix up with the other members of the community. The reformation generally takes place either through probation or parole as measures for reforming criminals. It looks at the seclusion of the criminals from the society as an attempt to reform them and to prevent the person from social ostracism. Though this theory works stupendously for the correction of juveniles and first time criminals, but in the case of hardened criminals this theory may not work with the effectiveness. In these cases come the importance of the deterrence theories and the retributive theories. Thus each of these four theories have their own pros and cons and each being important in it, none can be ignored as such. Co nc lus io n The researcher at the end of this project finds punishment as a method of social control. He would like to summarize his understanding about the teories of punishment: # There is an attempt to portray punishments as a method of inflicting of unpleasant circumstances over the offender. # Though certain theories like the reformative and preventive rely upon humanitarian modes of punishment, but these have a weakness against the hardcore criminals. # Punishments such as the retributive and deterrence though the use of fear as an instrument to curb the occurrence of crime helps in controlling the criminals up to a certain extent. As these employ the idea of revenge and vengeance these are much more harsher than others. The researcher would like to add his own views on this very controversial topic. We all know that truth is stranger than fiction and so is the practice of these theories. Though prisons are meant to be the place where the criminals would be corrected or for that case deterred from committing a wrong in the future, but the present day witnesses the prisons to have become redundant in their objective and becoming sites of breeding for hardcore criminals. This is a fact that the penologists must look into. Furthermore the techniques applied in executing the punishment are not fool proof, for e.g. the criminals are able to carry on their illegal activities even during serving the period of sentence. Though in theory all of the punishments discussed above may seem perfect if used collectively, but this all becomes a mere joke when tried to implicate in the practical sense.
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