The television show known as Jersey Shore that aired on MTV for six seasons. The first time it aired was in December of 2009 and it was a huge hit. There were many controversies before they aired the show because it was an MTV reality show that reminded the viewers of The Real World. The show followed all eight housemates around day in to day out whether they were working during the day or partying at night. The fact that all random characters met up in a house to live for a summer together made viewers want to watch and see what will come about. Since the cast was followed around all of the time they would catch every minute of the exciting thing happening. They were able to cut out the dull, uninteresting parts so the viewers did not waste their time and cut to the chase. The critics were thinking negative thoughts before it aired and the controversy if the show Jersey Shore had a positive or negative impact on society. Jersey Shore was looked as a bad influence to younger views and nothing good was coming from it. Others look up to these characters as role models and follow in some of their footsteps.…
According to Duff and Garland, what are the central differences between ‘consequentialist’ and ‘non-consequentialist’ (often referred to as ‘retributivist’) theories of punishment?…
As previously mentioned, if the punishment is not harsh enough the result is repeated offense. If a criminal relishes in committing a crime and the court system does not properly punish them for it, then they actually have no reason not to repeat the crime over again. The National Institute of Justice, part of the U.S department of Justice, studied how likely criminals are to relapse after being released, claiming that “Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested” (Durose, Cooper, and Howard). This statistic proves that there is a significant chance that a criminal will indeed carry out the same action as before. The most significant way that an offender is punished is through what…
10. What are the 4 utilitarian justifications for punishment? Deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation and specific deterrence…
Let’s first begin with what punishment means. Punishment is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense. While completing my research I was able to stumble across two definitions that caught my attention. The general definition for punishment is “aversive stimulus that follows an undesirable behavior, and is intended to decrease or eliminate the occurrence of that behavior. It may be triggered either due to the performance of an undesirable act (negligence) or the non-performance of a desirable act (disobedience). Punishments take the form of presentation of an unpleasant stimulus (criticism or warning) or withdrawal of a pleasant one (employment or promotion). Threat of punishment usually also constitutes a punishment”. The definition of punishment pertaining to the law is “Confinement, fine, penalty, sanction, or loss of a privilege, property, or right, assessed and administered as deterrence or retribution by an authorized court to an entity duly convicted of violating the law of the land”. [ (Buisness Dictionary, 2013) ] Punishments must be adequate match the reasons why the crimes were committed. History shows that Cesare Beccarua who was an Italian theorist, first suggested linking crime causation to punishments in the eighteenth century. He is known as the founder of the Classical School of criminology. The classical School is the theory linking crime causation to punishment, based on offenders’ free will and…
This paper is written in an attempt to comprehend the sentencing philosophy and purpose of criminal punishment through a review of the historical parameters concerning how sentencing and punishment serve society. Sentencing is the application of justice and the end result of a criminal conviction which is applied by the convening authority; followed by the sentence, or judgement of the court on a convicted offender. What makes punishment unique to our society is the application of our moral or ethical beliefs as a whole, and by the population at large. Throughout history, the sentencing and administration of punishments have been swift, brutal and often times ending with the death of the offender, but in our more civilized and modern society,…
Moving forward, we examine the rehabilitation view. This view of punishment fails the guilt requirement because the criminal justice system would have to sort out all the potential criminals from society and attempt to rehabilitate them and attempt to make them into a better person, which would be nearly impossible. It also fails the equal treatment requirement because each criminal would require a different form of…
Historical theories of punishment were based on the concept that applying fearful consequences to criminals would discourage any potential offenders. During the late 1700’s, a criminologist by the name of Cesar Beccaria argued the fact that the death penalty served no purpose as a form of punishment, let alone as a deterrence to criminals. He advocated to reform the criminal justice system through penology, concerning specifically with punishment and deterrence (Beccaria, 2009). In the following essay, Beccaria’s theory of punishment will be thoroughly…
The purpose of sentencing: the “deserved infliction of suffering on evildoers and “the prevention of crime.” There four fundamental philosophies surrounding the purpose of sentencing. First, the oldest and most common is retribution. Retribution is the philosophy that those who commit criminal acts should be punished based on the severity of the crime and that no other factors need be considered. The second philosophy is deterrence. In deterrence, the goal of sentencing is to prevent future crimes. Deterrence takes a general and specific form. General deterrence is that by punishing one person, others will be dissuaded from committing a similar crime. Specific deterrence assumes thart an individual, after being punished once for a certain act,…
Criminal sentencing in America has long been guided by one of several different major philosophies of punishment, including retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation (Spohn, 2000). Retributive sentences involve punishments intended to exact revenge, in line with the biblical idea of “an eye for an eye.” This is based on the belief that some behaviors are unconditionally wrong and therefore justified of punishment. From this perspective, sentences should be equal with the harm done to society. Deterrence, on the other hand, involves a more practical basis for sentencing. It is based on the concept that crime is easily chosen as the result of a rational cost-benefit examination. Individuals will engage in crime when the benefits…
The four fundamental philosophies surrounding the purpose of sentencing are; retribution, this philosophy is the belief that those who commit criminal acts should be punished according to the seriousness of the crime and that no other circumstances are considered, deterrence, this strategy is the thought that if the punishment given is severe enough that it will stop the potential criminal from committing the crime or to be a repeat offender. Incapacitate is the third philosophy that is a belief that if the criminal is detained for a crime, thereby being separated from the community reduces the criminal activity and once released will not be as likely to be a repeat offender. Rehabilitation is the fourth and final philosophy that surrounds the purpose of sentencing, some believe that society is best served when those who break the law are not simply punished but are provided with resources needed to eliminate the need or want to engage in criminal…
All across our nation we have been burdened as American citizens by what feels like a moral dilemma. The issue of births from unauthorized immigrant parents has become more prevalent in the past decade. In 2007, 9% of all babies were born to immigrant parents in the United States (Passel and Cohn). More recently, in 2013, 295,000 babies were born to illegal aliens (“Overall number of unauthorized immigration hold steady since 2009”). Thus presenting an obvious problem that needs to be evaluated rather than ignored. Though one must consider the detrimental effect, this could have on a child. Is it wrong to separate a mother from their child once they have been born in the U.S.? Children of illegal immigrants face consequences for their parents being undocumented citizens.…
Punishment is our current most exercised consequence for bringing justice to those victims of criminals by incarcerating offenders in a jail or prison, as well as other forms such as the community service, probation, and even the death penalty. While jail and/or prison life is necessary to protect the public by confining criminals away from public harm, I believe that “only” punishing dangerous criminals is simply not enough.…
This week’s reading focuses on the various types of sentencing theories, the types of sentencing options, and how they are applied. I found the just deserts and retribution perspectives to be interesting. While these theories are similar in their favoring of proportionality in sentencing, they differ in terms of when prison sentences should be imposed and the length of prison sentences (when they are imposed). Retributionists believe that individuals that cause harm should be inflicted with the same level of pain and that prisons strictly used for punishment.…
The main idea of punishment using the idea of utilitarianism is that punishment should be created solely for the reason of deterrence. There are two different levels of deterrence, and they are specific…