Everyday, America is constantly forced to see that one strand of punishment doesn’t work well for the whole society. This particular idea can be concluded seeing that even after our correctional system implemented the philosophies of: deterrence, just desert, restorative justice, incapacitation, and rehabilitation crime still continued to occur. I believe America’s dominant correctional philosophy should be deterrence; the other philosophies mentioned before should be included as well to help reach the main goal of lowering our crime rates. With this thorough concept of applying all the philosophies to power deterrence, this will not only create a balance, but fill the void in the shortcomings of each individual correctional philosophy.
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Within incapacitation, the general population may be deterred when this theory is implemented being that it imprisons offenders by physically removing them from the society when a criminal offense is committed. This punishment could possibly deter individuals because if someone knows they will be imprisoned for a crime that they’ve committed then that could possibly be deterred away from that crime. For those who are not affected and continue to reoffend, to deter them just desert or retribution should be applied. The implementation of what we know today as “an eye for an eye” could help decrease the recidivism rate. Deterrence can be gained through just desert/retribution; individuals may be deterred after if our correctional system takes on a just desert mindset of for “stubborn offenders”. Deterrence along with the other theoretical theories can help change how we view our correctional system. With deterrence as the face of the operation, the other theories can assist in achieving the main goal of lowering the crime rate. These theories aren’t perfect but together they can be a power house within our justice system.
Since the beginning of this course, my idea on our correctional system has changed tremendously. This course helped me to understand theories and concepts of punishments that we have once implemented in our history, and are still being implemented today. History of Corrections has really opened my eyes as to why our society and justice system is what it is today. I have learned so much from this course and hope I will be able to teach these concepts I have learned to other young criminologist in the