Crime and Punishment
Uploaded by pharaoh on Jun 05, 2002
In our society's criminal justice system, justice equals punishment. You do the crime, and you do the time. Once you have done the time, you have paid your debt to society and justice has been done. Because our society defines justice in this manner, the victims of crimes often seek the most severe possible punishment for their offenders. Society tells them this will bring justice, but it often leaves them feeling empty and unsatisfied after getting what they wanted. Punishment does not address the other important needs of victims. It cannot restore their losses, answer their questions, relieve their fears, and help them make sense of their tragedy or heal their wounds.
Regardless of their particular view, most people agree that crime and violence are blowing up out of control in the streets of our towns and cities. Most also agree that what we are doing about it is not working. We are fearful and we have good reason. We know our criminal justice system is broken and we don't know how to fix it.
Crime always goes down when the economy is good. That is because there is more money for police, but more importantly because there are less people who are desperate for money, or could not make money in a legal way. One of the dominant principles of justice is the principle of proportionality . The punishment should always be proportional to the crime. That makes it needed to describe a range for the harshness of crimes. It allows an evaluation of several crimes between each other, and provides a quick suggestion of what the punishment should be in a perfect, fair, and real world.
A crime is an action considered to be wrong and punishable by the law. A sin is an act of breaking the rules which goes against the will of God. People do wrong for a variety of reasons. Most people will commit small crimes and if not caught and punished the gains become a routine and tradition. Some of the reasons for committing crimes are social pressure, personal problems, greed and other circumstances. Social pressures are people who need to have lots of wealth so therefore they commit crime. Personal problems cause a difficult life which can lead to a life of crime as payback, an expression of anger or as a method of escape. Greed is someone wanting possessions that others...