Punishment is defined as the deliberate infliction of pain on a person for the sake of attaining revenge (Gilligan, 2000, p. 746). The social construct of punishment is prison; it is putting the wrongdoer behind bars. Society seeks revenge, and revenge can be prison.
Penitentiaries or prisons are institutions, the main purpose is to inflict pain on people for the sake of revenge (Gilligan, 2000, p. 746). Furthermore, punishment tends to be subjective and irrational in comparison to being objective which would remove the emotion. Punishment and sentencing manipulates people. It ignores underlying instances of bad behaviour, and it does not try to get to the root of the problem. Therefore, punishment is not rehabilitating or restoring. Punishment and violence is contagious (Gilligan, 2000, p. 754). This refers to the
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Elliott (2011, p. 36) acknowledges that it does not look at the reason as to why the person committed the act. The goal for punishment in the justice system is to educate. Elliot (2011, p. 35) mentions that there is no concrete evidence that supports the theory of punishment deterring crime. Society feels as if it is right to punish wrongdoers, in turn they feel safe (Kateb, 2007, p. 270). James Gilligan (2000, p. 746) states that punishment is the most powerful stimulus of violence. It does not deter violence; it causes more violence. It would be hard to imagine a justice system without punishment (Elliott, 2011 p.31). If there was no way to punish individuals the justice system would be irrelevant to society. Communities would not feel safe and there would be no need for a justice system. Overall, there seems to be a common acceptance that punishment is a way of coercing criminals to educate the rest of society (Elliott, 2011, p. 32). Most people will obey laws since they fear they will be punished. Therefore, this instils fear in society. Punishment structures the