Treatment vs Punishment Chapter 2

• Study notes on treatment vs punishment chapter 2.

History of punishment

• Early forms included death, torture, maiming, and banishment.
• Jails were introduced in Medieval Europe for those awaiting trial or convicted of minor offenses like drunkenness, gambling, and prostitution.
• Death and corporal punishment remained even for offenses now punishable by imprisonment.
• Convicted offenders were sometimes chained to galleys to man ships of war.
• Transportation to penal colonies was common for European countries needing labor in their colonies.
• England transported prisoners to American Colonies starting in 1718 until the American Revolution.

What is punishment

• It serves as a means of social control to foster cohesion and conformity.
• It generally involves inflicting pain on an offender for violating the law.
• Redress is taken by the state against a member of society, involving pain and suffering.
• Punishment is intentionally inflicted in a definite way by society on a permanent member.
• It expresses society's disapproval, imposing a penalty for certain behaviors.
• Punishment may or may not cause actual suffering, depending on circumstances and the individual.

Forms of punishment

• Forms of punishment in primitive society included the death penalty, corporal punishment, public humiliation and shaming, and banishment.
• Death penalty was carried out by hanging, burning, immersing in boiling oil, feeding to wild animals, or other barbaric ways.
• Corporal punishment was inflicted by flogging, mutilation, disfiguration, or maiming.
• Public humiliation and shaming were carried out by the use of stocks and pillory, docking stool, branding, and shaving off hair.

Justifications of punishment

• Theories vary across civilizations, with common justifications including retribution, expiation or atonement, deterrence, protection, and reformation.

Retribution

• In primitive times, victims sought personal vengeance without laws or courts.
• Retaliation often exceeded the original crime, leading to vendettas.
• Attempts were made to limit retaliation, leading to "an eye for an eye".
• Offenses now in criminal codes were once private, allowing victims personal vengeance.
• Retribution is the oldest justification, theorized by Kant and Hegel, stating punishment is justified by a wrongful act and should be proportional.
• Philosopher Kurt Baier summarized retribution: only the guilty deserve it, it shouldn't be less than the crime's severity, and it shouldn't exceed the crime's severity.
• An 'offence-based tariff' proposes punishments of varying severity matched to the crime's seriousness.
• Punishing individuals doesn't address the root causes of criminality.
• Punishment should be provided by the state to enforce sanctions.

Expiation or Atonement

• It was advocated in pre-historic days, involves common understanding and sympathy within a group.
• An offense against a member incites condemnation from the whole group.
• The group demands punishment for the offender.
• Punishment is exacted publicly to appease the social group.
• Punishing the offender gives the community a sense of moral superiority and reinforces virtue.

Deterrence

• It is believed punishment teaches a lesson and deters crime.
• Cesare Beccaria, from the Classical School of Criminology, argued against torturing criminals but advocated preventing similar offenses.
• Believed only that degree of severity that is sufficient to deter others should be applied.

Types of Deterrence

• Individual ( or specific) aims to prevent repeat offenses by those already punished.
• General justifies punishment to deter other potential offenders.

Protection

• It became a justification after prisons were established.
• Society is supposedly protected by imprisoning offenders.
• Vicious criminals are made to serve long terms of imprisonment.

Reformation

• This is the latest justification for punishment.
• Society is best protected by reforming or rehabilitating prisoners but not deter if imprisonment does not protect society even as the bigger portion of the criminal population is at large.
• Helping prisoners become law-abiding citizens through rehabilitation can serve society's interests.

Limitation of punishment

• Punishment has limitations on the offender, despite justifications.
• It can make criminals cautious about concealing activities.
• It stigmatizes and isolates individuals, turning them into martyrs or developing antisocial resentment.
• Punishment does not always deter, repair damage to society, or reconstruct the offender's personality.

Trends of punishment

• Principally include exemptions, pardon, and communications.
• A decline in the severity of punishment can be observed.
• The growth of imprisonment and its modifications occurred.
• Good time allowances, indeterminate sentences, suspended sentence and probation, conditional release, parole, short sentences, and fines can be observed.

Exemptions of punishment

• Exemptions are often social; in Europe, kings were seen as infallible.
• The upper class was often exempt from criminal liability, unlike commoners.
• Most countries do not punish offenders lacking "mens rea" (guilty mind).
• The right of sanctuary during the early Christian era was originally for clergy and later extended to those who could read and write.
• The age of the offender is another basis; juvenile delinquents are not legally classified as criminals.
• The mental condition of the offender is another basis for exemption.
• Reformists want the criminal insane to be handled with special laws and mental institutions.
• Juries should determine guilt, while experts determine the case's disposition in cases of insanity or mental disturbance.