Punishment And Its Ethical Justification
"Punishment is the proper retaliation for a wilful violation of moral law." The criminal's wrongdoing is brought home to him by his punishment. If a good deed is worthy of praise or reward, a bad deed should be punished. This is the moral basis for punishing someone.
• Punishment is frequently referred to as a form of negative retribution paid to the criminal. Because there will be no harmony, equity, or uniformity in society if criminals are not punished.
• Moral laws and moral people will continue to be disregarded. Moral laws will appear to be a useless piece of advice.
• As a result, in order to preserve the majesty, supremacy, authority, and dignity of moral laws, a criminal should be punished if he or she deliberately violates a moral law and disregards its authority and supremacy.
THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT
There are three main punishment theories.
1. The deterrent (or preventive) theory holds that punishment is administered in order for a potential criminal to learn a lesson and refrain from committing the same crime in the future.
2. The retributive theory holds that punishment is meted out solely because it is deserved.
3. According to the Reformative (or Educative) theory, punishment is given in order to reform the criminal.
• Each theory has its own fundamental tenet. Deterrent theory's first order principle is to maximise total happiness in society by lowering the crime rate, while Retributive theory's basic principle is justice, and Reformative theory's basic principle is to make the criminal a morally better individual.
1. DETERRENT OR PREVENTIVE THEORY OF PUNISHMENT
• The Deterrent Theory of Punishment is utilitarian in nature, believing that man is punished not because he has done a wrong act or committed a crime, but so that crime will not be committed.
• It is best expressed in the words of a judge who famously said, "You are punished not for stealing sheep, but so that sheep will not be stolen."
• The Deterrent theory aims to control the crime rate in society by making potential criminals realise that it does not pay to commit a crime.
• The first order principle is maximum happiness for the maximum number of people in the society. This theory is promoted by Jeremy Bentham.
2. RETRIBUTIVE THEORY OF PUNISHMENT
• The retributive theory holds that punishment must be meted out solely on the basis of deserving it.
• The first principle is justice, with the assumption that if a good deed must be rewarded, a bad deed must be punished, because punishment is simply the reward for doing something wrong.
• We are treating the wrongdoer equally by punishing him; Aristotle and Hegel believe that punishment is a kind of negative reward paid to a criminal.
• According to Hegel, the demand for punishment arises from a violation of moral law, and thus we should punish a criminal. Punishment arises as a result of his evil deeds.
3. REFORMATIVE OR EDUCATIVE THEORY OF PUNISHMENT
• As the name implies, the purpose of punishment is to reform the criminal. Supporters of this theory believe that a person commits a crime because he is either ignorant or has done something wrong and wants to improve himself.
• This theory also claims that the majority of crimes are caused by pathological phenomena, such as mental deficiency, insanity, or a physiological defect. As a result, the criminal should be cured and reformatted.
• Plato has traditionally been regarded as the father of Reformation theory, and his three positions can be summarized as follows
1. The state has a child-parent relationship with the delinquent.
2. Wickedness is a mental illness, not a personality trait.
3. Punishment is a moral medicine for bad behaviour, and no matter how unpleasant it is, it is unavoidable.