People who break the law are considered to have deviated from the social norms. Law breakers are those people who have committed various crimes against an individual or the society as a whole.
To avoid repetition of crimes committed by the law breakers, these people should receive punishments which are related to the crimes they have committed and which bear the same weight as to the crime. More serious crimes should receive more severe punishments than those who commit crimes that create little impact to the offended. The punishments should be aimed at ensuring that people learn the lesson as well as change the offender into becoming a better person.
Should all the offenders get treated the same?
Even though all the criminals are the same in that they are all human beings, they should not be treated in the same manner when dealing with different crimes. There should be different ways of dealing with the offenders who have committed different crimes.
For example, the drug offenders should be dealt with in such a way that they would be helped on how to do away with drug taking through a rehabilitation process. Most of the drug offenders are also drug addicts and therefore saving their lives from the addiction would be the best solution for them. The non-violent property offenders should be less fined.
They should also be punished through a short period of imprisonment in order to discourage them from repeating the same mistake and also to discourage others who would have thought of committing the same crime in future. The solution to the white collar offenders would be a short period imprisonment in order to discourage the same mistake from being repeated, and also through probation.
For those offenders who commit violent crimes like murder and sexual harassment, the best solution would be either to execute them or send them to long period imprisonment so that they are denied access to the society in which they are likely to cause more harm especially to those whom they suspect to have reported them to the authority. The society would also keep away from such crimes as they would have fear to go through the same. This would help to minimize the violent crimes in the society.
Punishment goals for different types of offenders
The punishment goal should be different for various types of crimes and offenders. This is because the crimes committed were different both in condition and reason and therefore the punishment goals should also be different for those different types’ of offenders. For example, a punishment for the same crime must take consideration of the age of the offender and prevalence for crime.
A juvenile offender should be punished less severely and with the aim of correction rather than retribution or making them “pay” for their crimes. On the other hand, a mature person may be punished severely depending on the weight of the crime. A frequent offender may need to be jailed on incapacitated to avoid him repeating his actions.
Different punishments: A focus on crimes
Retribution as a punishment goal should focus on those crimes which are intended to “make a criminal pay”. These kinds of crimes may include: murder and rape. A person who repeatedly commits crimes such as a serial killer or a chronic drug trafficker may need to be incapacitated.
This will restrict his freedom such that he cannot commit crime again. However, some critics of this punishment goal argue that it is unfair as this punishes people by inflicting longer jail terms with an aim of preventing future crimes. They argue that there is no justification for punishing a person for a crime they might do. For some lesser crimes such as over speeding, deterrence may be the best punishment.
A harsh, swift, and certain punishment will make other people avoid crimes because they want to avoid the punishment. However, for this punishment goal to work, the punishment must be swift, severe, and certain. People also need to be thinking rationally about the pros and cons of crime for deterrence to work. Unfortunately, most crimes are committed when people are least rational.