PUNISHMENT AND CRIME

Does punishment deter crime?

Does punishment deter crime?

Statistics and history have revealed that many criminals have the tendency to setback into criminal behavior that raises the question as to whether or not punishment deters crimes. Clearer definitions of deviant deterrence, retribution, behavior, protection, and rehabilitation of the American society require to be understood and established in an attempt to analyze results of punishment and crime in American society.

Criminal deviance could be described as a recognized violation of societal norms that appears intolerable by the legal standards; or immoral. Social control is decided and determined by law in order to create how a society can function for the betterment of the people. Although there is suppose to be a separation of church and state, most laws are based on the Ten Commandments and some retribution also appear to follow the biblical era of an eye for an eye. An example could include those whom commit homicide and some states along with their attorneys, attempt to instill in the jurors a request for capital punishment. This leads us back to one of the Ten Commandments of "Thou shall not kill". One would like to believe that capital punishment would surely be enough to dissuade anyone from committing murder, but such threats appear to not having much bearing on those whom intentionally take the life of another person (Axia, 2008).

While homicide and the death penalty can be an extreme example, societies fear of recidivism, a tendency for a criminal to relapse into criminal behavior, which could be a reason why jails are over-populated. While many would like to believe that acts of crime could be prevented through deterrence, the acts of retribution would appear to be a failure in recognition of the high number of crimes committed on a daily basis. The concept of deterrence appears a worth-while venue to discover and note-worthy of its concept in hopes to prevent crimes. It also appears to have little bearing on the conscious of those whom choose a life of a criminal. Laws were created to deter the masses from criminal acts (Frase, 2002), and while the majority may choose, whether it may be for moral or law abiding issues, one percent of Americans are jailed on a daily basis. While, it could be true that merely one percent of Americans end up in jail on a daily basis. It can also be true with the one percent being sent to jail for a crime simply because they were caught in a criminal act and it does not accurately portray how many criminal acts went unaccounted for. According to Charles Keckler (2006) capital punishment has risen in the state of Texas by a margin of 1.39% annually since 1996. If capital punishment is not a deterrent, and then the threats of throwing an individual in jail would surely fail by comparison. Throughout the years, some would choose to believe that perhaps if rehabilitation were readily available, then the crime rate would lessen or ...