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Friday, 8 November 2013

Can punishment be justified?


After studying justice, law and punishment, I decided to research further into a controversial topic within the justice system; can punishment be justified? The imposing of penalties upon offenders who have broken society's laws seems intuitively justifiable, but the question I shall attempt to answer here is whether it is philosophically justifiable.

The basic moral question about punishment is an old age one: ‘What justifies the infliction of punishment on people?’ Punishing people certainly needs a justification, since it is almost always something which is harmful, painful or unpleasant for the recipient. When individuals steal, kidnap, or kill, we generally say this is wrong; but when a criminal is fined, imprisoned, or executed we deem it acceptable.  Though most people would endorse the punishment of criminals if asked, it is likely that they have not seriously considered the possibility that the amount of suffering inflicted counts so heavily against the practice that it is in fact wrong.

Both utilitarians and the deontologists are of the opinion that punishment is justifiable, but according to the utilitarian moral thinkers, punishment can be justified solely by its consequences, while the deontologists believe that punishment is justifiable purely on retributive ground.  D. D. Raphael, a British author, is found to reconcile both views. According to him, a punishment is justified when it is both useful and deserved. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham, on the other hand, denies it to be justifiable in the sense that it is not right to punish an offender.

To justify an act is to say that it is good or right. Infliction of punishment is a human conduct and as such it is absurd to ask for its justification. I hold the view that to justify is to give reason, and it is only a statement or an assertion behind which we can put forth reason. Infliction of pain is an act behind which the agent may have purpose or intention but not reason. So, it is not punishment, but rather statements concerning punishment that we can justify.

Regarding the justification of punishment, philosophers are not of the same opinion. According to the utilitarian moral thinkers punishment can be justified solely by its consequences. That is to say, according to the utilitarian account of punishment 'A ought to be punished' means that A has done an act harmful to people and it needs to be prevented by punishment or the threat of it. So, it will be useful to punish A. Philosopher Kant agreed with this statement on the basis that a person cannot be treated merely as a means to some independent aim and must also be treated as an end unto himself. In other words, a person may not be treated merely as a tool or a chess-piece.

From researching this topic, I have come to the conclusion that to claim whether punishment is justifiable or not is dependent upon the nature of the act which the person has engaged in and the individual circumstances to why one has sinned against God and their neighbours.
By E.C :)


 

 

3 comments:

  1. A well written article which encourage the reader to explore this topic in more depth. Many may argue that perhaps one ought to consider restorative justice as it does include the victims, the offenders and the families. All of us are affected by crime and violence directly or indirectly. Our criminal law system at the moment asks the question what law is broken and what punishment is warranted but perhaps we ought to be asking who was harmed and how do all affected parties tighter address the needs and repair harm?

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  2. An interesting post - well done! If we are thinking of punishment philosophically, does that suggest we need a better system to give out punishment? We have a system based on a list of suitable punishments for certain crimes, other legal systems are far more case based, taking into account similar cases and the effects on victims. Is a philosophical approach suitable for our modern world?

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  3. A very good post. It may be interesting to look further into the Utilitarian approach to punishment? In utilitarianism, punishment is justified only insofar as it promotes the general happiness. For the utilitarian, it is not morally permissible to punish criminals in order to give them what they deserve by exacting revenge or retribution on them. No one “deserves” anything…our only duty is to maximize utility. The basic problem with retributivism, for the utilitarian, is that “it advocates the infliction of suffering without any compensating gain in happiness.”

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