goals of punishment
...ing the same thing 5. to protect society from dangerous people 6. to allow offenders to make amends for the wrongs they have committed 7. to make people realize that laws must be obeyed. • But problems arise often b/c these reasons for punishment often conflict. • Conflicts typically arise between reasons for punishing an offender b/c s/he deserves it and for preventing future crimes. • Therefore, reasons for punishment typically fall into 2 groups: 1. preventing future crimes- 2. punishing past (already committed) crimes- Theories of Punishment based on Prevention: • Utilitarian: based on the Utilitarian political-moral philosophy • Consequentialist: they justify punishment by its anticipated future consequences • Reductivist: the aim is to reduce crime Past-oriented Theories: • Retributivist: the aim is to exact retribution from offenders for their crimes. • Central to this perspective is to place moral blame on the offender for the offenses that s/he has committed; future conduct is not a concern here. *** This debate between the various perspectives of punishment will never be fully resolved; ultimately it comes down to the fact that offenders are often punished for a combination of the reasons listed above. • In practice, penal codes and those judiciaries who implement them attempt to achieve a balance among all of these reasons for punishment. • At certain times throughout history, one theory has been more fashionable than another. • This phenomenon tends to be the result of a number of public policy factors and influences. *** In order to understand the reasons behind why society punishes offenders, we really need to look at what the purpose of the criminal law really is; what is the goal of law? How should society define crime? What behaviors should be included in the definition and which ones excluded, and on what basis? • State (or judicial) punishment is the mechanism of enforcement for the criminal law, the purpose of which is to discourage the behaviors which it specifies. • If the goal and purpose of criminal law is to prevent crime, then why do we need a system of punishment? • When we answer the question, we ultimately give a justifying aim for punishment. • However, it is the principle of distribution that answers the questions of how much punishment and what type of punishment. • There is a distinction here between those 2 principles. Punishment and Society: what is the social role and characteristics of penal systems? • Although many of the issues of punishment have been addressed by moral philosophers and philosophers of law, punishment has also been largely an interest of sociologists and historians. • Sociologists are largely concerned with the relationship between the ways in which societies are organized- the economic system, the social stratification system- and the kinds of penal system they develop. • Social scientists look at the penality characteristic of different societies at different time periods throughout history. • Penality refers to the complex ideas (about proper punishment/ effective punishment), institutions (laws, policies and practices, agencies and buildings), and relationships (who has the power to punish, etc.) that are involved in the process of punishment. • Sociologists look at the issues of what punishments are LIKE and what they are FOR. • Example: Foucault and his analysis of the manner in which punishment changed throughout history from its early days of torture and emphasis on the offender's physical body to the prison where offenders were confined and the emphasis was on their minds- i.e., the attempt was to reform or rehabilitate them. • Sociologists also focused on the power relations that develop between offenders and the state or authorities • Sociologists also examine the nature of the social contract and the relationships between members of society and the government. This analysis emphasized the fact that governments need to uphold certain principles or else they can be overthrown. • Sociologists studied the conditions under which people are willing to sacrifice their freedom for protection from the state (similar to utilitarian philosophy). • Sociologists like Durkheim examined the nature of law as the primary source of moral authority in a society; a society's system of punishment was how that society expressed its norms and values. • Durkheim addressed the question of what is the function of punishment? • Punishing effectively: the criminological tradition- focusing on the pragmatic application of principles of punishment/ justice and applying them to real-world, technical problems of crime. • Transgressing crime and punishment: abolition and deconstruction- radical challenges to punishment; calling for an end to imprisonment and focus on a system for the...