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Deterrence And Retribution In The Criminal Justice System

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Deterrence and retribution are two major philosophies that underpin punishment in the Criminal Justice System. Deterrence is a philosophy which aims to prevent or reduce crime through the fear of punishment with the aim that the threat of punishment will prevent people committing crimes. Whereas retribution is a philosophy which aims to punish the criminal for the act caused with the idea that the punishment should be proportional to the harm caused for example the idea of ‘an eye for an eye’ (Philosophies of punishment 2005). The aim of this report is to define and explain both retribution and deterrence compare and contrast the philosophies and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Identifying which philosophy is the most effective for …show more content…

Both deterrence and retribution aim to prevent future crime while promoting justice and maintaining order in society. Both philosophies recognise that criminal acts have a negative impact for the individuals involved and the community as a whole. However, deterrence and retribution do have many differences for example their main focus. Deterrence focuses on preventing crime by enforcing punishments so serve they deter the community as a whole not to commit crime not just the offenders. Deterrence follows the idea that people are rational and will not commit a criminal act if the price of their action is bigger then the benefits of it (Philosophies of punishment 2005). Whereas retribution focuses on punishing the criminal for their crime despite it deterring them or not and operates on the idea thar criminals should be held accountable for their …show more content…

MAPPA is a multi-agency which manages the risks posed by violent and sex offenders, with their focus to protect society from harm and ensuring that offenders are monitored not only while they serve their sentence but also after their release. MAPPA works in all thirty-two London boroughs and each individual agency share information about sexual and violent offenders in order to carry out their obligations in helping to manage the offender safely in society.

MAPPA supports retribution ensuring criminals are being punished for their crimes and that their punishment is proportional to the harm that they caused to the community. MAPPA makes sure offenders are held accountable for their actions through, imprisonment, supervision, community service and continued observation once released from imprisonment. The agencies work together by sharing information, assessing risks and considering many variables such as mental health, education and substance abuse in order to ensure offenders receive any support they require while still being held accountable for their

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Within this framework, individuals are considered to make rational choices, equally capable of reason and therefore shall be deemed responsible for their actions and deterred through potential threat. Today, classical thinking is evident in sentencing via the “just deserts” approach. This approach to sentencing assures that someone who is found guilty of a crime must be punished for the crime. The just deserts approach rejects individual discretion and rehabilitation – insisting “justice must be

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The deterrence theory suggests that “the severity of criminal sanctions dissuades other potential offenders from committing crimes out of fear of punishment. ”4 That is applicable to the individuals that are punished and to people in the community. Nevertheless, prison’s effectiveness is often questioned as an effective deterrent to crime. Studies have shown that longer sentences have a small effect on whether offenders commit crimes or not, and the National Academy of Sciences determined that “insufficient evidence exists to justify predicating policy choices on the general assumption that harsher punishments yield measurable deterrent effects.

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Imagine yourself in America in the 1700’s under strict and unfair british rule. As a citizen, wouldn’t you want to free yourself and change your life forever. Although rebellion and defiance in society was necessary then, it is often looked down upon in society today. In the stories Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka, they analyze the lives of two different rebels who are forgotten by their own society. In Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut writes about the life of George and Hazel, whose son, Harrison had gone to prison.

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Deterrence is done to show and minimize delinquent behavior; showing them the consequences is more powerful then the benefits of committing a crime. Lastly. Rehabilitation seeks to help and change the factors that may allow an offender to join in crimes (Hess, K., Orthmann, C., & Wright, J. 2013). The chapter then talked about probation.

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Deterrence is future oriented to prevent crimes. Deterrence has two types general and specific. General is an individual punishment to dissuade others from committing crimes and specific is an individual being punished for additional

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The traditional goals of sentencing are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation (Stinchcomb, 2011). A more contemporary goal of criminal sanctions is restorative and community justice (Stinchcomb, 2011). Retribution is founded on the principle that offenders should receive their ‘just desserts’. However, the penalty must be proportionate to the offence committed (Welch, 2004, p.83) Deterrence aims to reduce criminal offending.

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In his essay Punishment and Desert, philosopher James Rachels describes his thoughts on retributive justice in great detail, and ultimately arrives at the conclusion that “retribution is the only idea that provides the basis of a just system of punishment.” Retributivism is a theory of punishment that aligns with the idea that those who do wrong or commit a crime deserve a punishment that is directly proportional to the severity of their wrongdoing. Retributivistic theory also states that the act itself of punishing a wrongdoer in direct proportion to their actions is a moral necessity. While other theories regarding crime and punishment, such as the utilitarian view, may seek to understand wrongdoing in a grander context, retributivism only

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Within the judicial and criminal justice systems, restorative justice is seen as a forward moving process in regards to the way in which the sentencing of offenders is handled (Britto & Reimund, 2013). Restorative justice works to focus on the needs of both the victim and the offender but incorporates the community as well as those who support both the victim and offender (Britto & Reimund, 2013). The approach of restorative justice in not simply a means by which society responds to and reduces crime but instead, provides an equivalently valuable social response to crime (Dancig-Rosenberg and Galt, 2013). Furthermore, the restorative approach places emphasis on the personal and relational harms which were caused by the crime while creating space for dialogue concerning the actual damage, whether directly or

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The retribution part is to punish the person for the crime that they permitted against society, and the incapacitation part is to remove that person out of society so they do no further harm. Deterrence means the prevention of future crime, and the rehabilitation teaches life skills and in the betterment. However, author Sandiford says that instead of solving crime, mass incarceration has infected our communities and striking them with devastating symptoms, and prison costs have skyrocketed, inmates ' families have been torn apart, and the system is overwhelmingly stratified by race and class (Sandiford,

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Traditionally, crime has been viewed as a violation against the state. Still too little attention is given to the fact that criminal acts are also violations of the victims and the communities. Punishing and correcting offenders’ criminal behaviors should not only be conducted using the concepts of retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence, it should also be designed to repair the damages done to the victims and the communities. Many benefits are associated with shifting to the restorative justice model, for the victim, the offender, and the community. Restorative justice benefits the victims by giving them a voice regarding the accountability of the offender.

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We said that retributive justice is a matter of giving those who commit crimes against humanity what they deserve. Hence, the advantages of taking a retributive approach falls under that notion. Pros of using retributive justice approach • Assault: Setting example - a prison sentence provides immediate punishment. It will leave the offender with no doubt that hurting someone is not acceptable.

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Punishment is an infliction of a penalty that resulted from an offence. Punishment is also naturally justified when administered to those who deserve it. Retributivists claim that people who break the law deserve the punishment they get. Retributivism views punishment as a fair judgment and believe that the state should punish those who are found guilty of their wrongdoing because they deserve it. A person deserves the same treatment they inflict on others.

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Motivation is a key factor; many criminals are motivated by desires, rage and desperation. It is very possible that criminals are not thinking rationally when committing a crime. In other words, the severity of a punishment is largely irrelevant when criminals are not thinking clearly at the time, the very fact that they committed the crime in the first place is already evident that they never considered the consequences. Therefore, it is untrue that harsher punishments are more

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