Viewed by many, the death penalty can be classified as the most cruel and unusual punishment in our criminal justice system. While some people are in support of the death penalty and view it as a fitting punishment for our most extreme offenders, others consider this to be too extreme and unreasonable of a punishment and should in turn be banned. The five punishment philosophies all have a different view in classifying crimes and punishments resulting in contrasting views on the death penalty. The philosophies will be explained in more detail to better explain and understand why or why not they agree or disagree on the extreme punishment that is the death penalty (Cullen and Jonson, 2012). Retribution: The central idea retribution focuses …show more content…
The purpose of incapacitation is to decrease the chances for criminals to commit crimes and to prevent others to engage in crime period. Just like deterrence, there are two types of incapacitation, collective and selective. Collective incapacitation is one that punishes both the high-risk and low-risk offenders whereas selective incapacitation focuses on just punishing the very high-risk dangerous offenders. Although the death penalty is more consistent with selective incapacitation because it deals more with the high-risk offenders it compliments both types and entirely eliminates the chances that high-risk and threatening offenders getting the chance to commit and recidivate again (Cullen and Jonson, …show more content…
What the rehabilitation philosophy believes is that it has the purpose of reforming the offender through many different types of treatments and/or therapy. These treatment programs could include education classes, vocational classes, family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is the most effective, and other ideas similar. Since rehabilitation believes in rehabilitating the offender and getting them help, the death penalty does not serve a purpose in the form of this philosophy; a supporter of rehabilitation would never implement this sentence. A rehabilitation activist trusts that offenders can be renewed through this process therefore making the death penalty inconsistent with what rehabilitation states (Cullen and Jonson,