Punishment and Crime

Term Paper # 116846

Criminology > Criminal Justice and Corrections
Sociology

An overview of four methods of punishment and their success in deterring crime.

1,118 words () | 8 sources | APA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper closely examines the different methods of punishment that include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and societal protection. The paper describes how each punishment works, whether it deters crime or possibly results in further crimes, and which presents the best option for punishing criminals. The paper concludes that rehabilitation is the best deterrent to criminal acts, and although it is treating the symptom as opposed to the disease, better education and jobs cannot be anything but positive.

Outline:
Retribution
Deterrence
Rehabilitation
Social Protection

From the Paper:

"Deterrence is based upon the idea that criminals are reasoning human beings, who commit criminal acts because it is a rational choice for them to do so: the demographics suggesting that criminal acts are prompted by social goals (such as Merton's 'Strain' theory: "Innovation involves accepting the cultural goal (financial success), but rejecting the conventional means (hard work at a 'straight' job), in favor of unconventional means (street crime)" (Macionis, 2006). By making the risk of punishment greater than the reward, deterrence implies that criminals will make a conscious choice between crime and remaining law abiding. This idea ignores issues about environment, poverty, and social pressure."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bureau of Justice Statistics "Criminal Offenders Statistics" http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#recidivism
Canadian Council on Social Development (1989) "Crime prevention through Social Development" http://csgv.ca/counselo/assets/CrimePreventionThrough Social Development.pdf.
Foot, Paul (1995) "State of Terror" Socialist Review Issue 190, October 1995. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr190/foot.htm.
Holmes, B.W. (1999) "Crime and Punishment" http://www.reasoned.org/rs_txt14.htm.
Macionis, John J. (2006) Society: the Basics eighth edition. Pearson Education Inc