Distinction should be made on the basis of crime

What do you think the goal of criminal punishment should be?  Would you differentiate between types of crime? Types of offenders?

The main goal of criminal punishment should be to punish the criminal for his or her crimes and serving as a form of rehabilitation so that when they reintegrated back into society they do not cause any more harm all while providing justice to the victim. While the other goals should include the possibility of incentivizing people to stay within confines of the law and promote fairness in terms of distribution of opportunity, rights, and resources.

I believe it is absolutely critical to differentiate between types of offenders.  Primarily this distinction should be made on the basis of the type of crime: Violent or Non- violent. This is because nonviolent crimes are not as severe as violent crimes and thus nonviolent criminals should be punished, in comparison less than someone who is a violent criminal. Moreover, it is important to physically separate these two types of criminals, not only because of the safety issues , but also because mentally the violent criminals can have a negative impact on the non violent criminals which would be counter-productive as they would become violent individuals and beat the entire purpose of going to jail and since 40% of convicts end up back in jail 3 years after being released (CBS news) it is clear that the prison system isn’t working well and reforms are needed.

Comments

  1. Anonymous14 October 2017 at 22:09

    Aye Myat Mon
    I agree with you absolutely that the differentiation of non-violent and violent criminals is crucial. However, only a certain percentage of offenders incarcerated are non-violent criminals. The majority are violent criminals. How do you suggest we deal with that aspect of the mass incarceration problem? What do you think are some ways to give people incentives to stay within confines of the law?

    ReplyDelete
  2. FreedomWriter31415 October 2017 at 12:44

    Anthony W
    I too found in my research that recidivism was increased significantly because of the prevalence of nonviolent offenders amongst the violent ones. I also agree that punishment should be based on severity. How do separating non-violent and violent offenders would do for the justice system?

    ReplyDelete

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