Issues in Crime - Essay Example

?Outline and evaluate the key justifications for the use of punishment in modern societies. To start with the discernment of punishment, it is something that needs to be understood in the light of the crime that has been done and not merely for the sake of ill treatment and harsh actions which are put on the part of the offender. The basic purpose of punishing someone is to make the person understand that he has committed a wrong and he should be made to pay for it, though not in terms of cash or some material gains but in a manner that will do some good for this human being in the long run. Punishments have to be understood in the proper context to state the least. Punishment in modern societies is being seen with a skeptical eye because it creates a sense of empathy and sympathy for the people yet is often viewed as a corrective exercise all the same. This paper shall outline and evaluate the key justifications for the use of punishment in modern societies. The reason why punishment comes into the equation is because the basis of justice is being imparted in a manner that it should be in the first place. It is right to suggest that justice within a society is not all about being fair but about holding a great deal of importance on being just and timely, which unfortunately does not manifest truly in the time and age of today. It is a true saying that justice delayed is justice denied; for this reason justice takes both these things when it is defined in the truest sense of the word. Punishment needs to be understood within the dictums of justice because it is radically associated with the mighty men – the rulers and the ones who govern a particular area or a regiment of soldiers (Marsh, 1984). The concepts of civil rights and of civil law are both functions of the concept of civil society whereby it is that bubble of private action free of government control. It is not free of government action, because government action secures the nature of civil society by the protection of persons against criminal wrongs. The essence of civil society is thus that people are left by government to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, while the government protects the citizens from criminal wrongs of violence, theft, fraud as well as many others. Punishment makes sure the civil society remains in order, and is not given the room to exploit the people in a negative way (Tonry, 2000). To quote as an example of punishment, one could understand the same in this notion. A commoner in today’s society is enticed every now and then to newer and fancier products and indeed adopt a similar way of life. For this, he wishes to have more money and if he works, he expects his employers to pay him more than his actual wage. White-collar crime is one form of crime that is on the escalation everywhere in the Western world. It ranges from breach of trust in highly technologically skilled societies to fraudulent charges and computer pilfering. It has been estimated to continue for an indefinite period of time in the future generations (Staddon, 1995). This sort of crime is difficult to define and hence few countries have been able to ascertain its origin, its perspectives and its rationale. This one is literally very hard to describe and examine and equally harder to enforce and arbitrate. The irony with white-collar felonies is that government and the people in particular do not pay heed to its curtailment and if something for the better is not done in this era, then it will surely become a super menace in tomorrow’s age. Within the modern societies, these punishments keep away the offenders and make them feel guilty because this is what is needed in the long run. The crime rate goes down and the people feel contented about the different punishments because these are correcting them more than anything else. However, if these punishments are geared to bring down their personalities, then the end result would be that they become hard core criminals and take law into their own hands, once they are set free from the shackles of the authorities. Thus the manner under which punishment comes about as a corrective force needs to be understood within the thick of things, and all-out efforts and endeavors are required to turn the tide in the favor of the modern society. Some people view the entire discussion on punishment as being one that is a lost cause while others are pretty hopeful with the same. The latter believe that the punishments would bring an end to the tyranny of the offenders and thus cast in a new understanding within these people that sanity must prevail at the end of the day, no matter what happens. However, seldom have such understandings seen the light of the day, and there are more problems with these offenders in the wake of the punishments than anything else. If these crimes need to be put an end to, punishment remains the only way forward. Punishing individuals who fall into the trap of these crimes, no matter whatever kind these might be, must be the order of the day. This will create a sense of empathy and understanding within the people, and they will know that they are being given a chance to mend their own selves in the most righteous manner. The significant question here is that whether the purpose of punishment is to make the offender into a good person or destroy his own self for good. This needs to be answered in the light of the discussion that we have done above. The morality angle seeks to find an explanation for the same in an ethical zone, one that limits the punishment from torturous ways and means rather making the offender pay for something that is most prized to him, though not necessarily in terms of money or valuables. It could be his time that he loves spending with his family or even his degrees that he has earned by getting himself educated over a period of quite a few years (Berman, 2003). Morality is indeed playing a quintessential role within the comprehension of punishment and how this acts as a deterrent to peace and sanity within a society. The movers and shakers within any society of the world depend staunchly on the incorporation of punishment within the ranks of the people who have gone astray as they opine that it will set the ball rolling as far as corrective actions and decisions are concerned. Moving on with the debate at hand, punishment’s sole objective should be to educate the offenders so that they do not repeat what they have already done in the past. More than that, these individuals should also be exclaimed about their acts in the light of morality and how ethics would never allow for the very same (Valier, 2003). The most significant thing in this equation is to apprise them of their sheer mistake rather than feeling agitated about the barbaric attitudes of the people who are at the helm whilst making the important decisions of their lives, which would either leave them in jail for a long time or get them hanged. The education factor must therefore be made apparent in the ruling of the verdict when an offender is punished since he must be told about the positives of life rather than making them hard and real criminals after they leave the jail area completing their respective tenures (Martravers, 2000). The attempt should thus always be to make the punished individuals into good and respectable human beings. If this does not come about, then the entire reckoning of punishment goes down the drain and it creates more animosity amongst the people that could be envisaged before they are punished. Education should indeed be the key within such quarters because punishment is in essence meant for something that creates harmony with what the offenders have done wrong and how they will go about doing it right in the future. In the end it would be fair to suggest that it is up to the said human being who has been punished as to how he takes the punishment in his stride and then goes about gaining further insights from the same. If he takes the same in a positive fashion, he is sure to become a better individual but if the opposite happens, then this person could turn out to be a real nuisance for the whole of society (Poon, 2002). The bottom line thus is to think for the betterment of all and sundry and not just focus on an offender who deserves punishment because it has been destined upon his personality by all accounts. Punishment should work to good advantage for his own self, and thus there is a dire need to get one’s act straight with regards to performance of work, behavior and actions that come about from the domains of an individual. Bibliography Berman, M., 2003. Justification and Excuse, Law and Morality. Duke Law Journal, 53 Marsh, F., 1984. Punishment and Restitution: A Restitutionary Approach to Crime and the Criminal. Greenwood Press Martravers, M., 2000. Justice and Punishment: The Rationale of Coercion. Oxford University Press Poon, N., 2002. Dangerous Offenders: Punishment and Social Order. The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 39 Staddon, J., 1995. On Responsibility and Punishment. The Atlantic Monthly, 275 Tonry, M., 2000. The Handbook of Crime and Punishment. Oxford University Press Valier, C., 2003. Crime and Punishment in Contemporary Culture. Routledge Read More