Understanding The Theories Of Punishment

Whenever a crime is committed anywhere, the criminal has to face the legal consequences of the crime. This is known as punishment. It can be defined as the legal actions that will follow the act of crime immediately. There are various theories and kinds of punishment that are dependent on the crime that is committed. The punishment could be any form of loss, suffering, pain, or some other form of penalty that will be inflicted on the one who has committed the crime in the first place. Any concerned authority of an area will be responsible for deciding the punishment. 

What Exactly are the Theories of Punishment? 

It is befitting to punish someone for the crimes that they have committed. However, the degree of punishment needs to be decided first. Hence, there are so many different theories of punishment in criminal law. These are basically the different types of punishment that one has to face in case they have committed a crime. The person will get a trial in the courts and the concerned authorities will decide the kind of punishment that they are supposed to receive. 

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Theories of Punishment

In order to have an understanding of what these different kinds of punishment are, it is first important to know what the different punishment theories are. According to the law, there are 4 major theories of punishment. These theories provide a basic sense of the type of punishment that a person is supposed to receive for the crimes that he has committed. The seriousness of the crime as well as the nature of the criminal are some of the factors that are behind the deciding of the type of punishment for them. 

Some of the major theories of punishment include the deterrent theory, preventive theory, retributive theory, as well as reformative theory. These theories are discussed in great detail in the section below for people to have a better understanding of the topic. 

Deterrent Theory

The deterrent theory is perhaps one of the strictest kinds of punishment in criminal law. When it comes to the deterrent theory, it is believed that the punishment is offered to the criminal only for the sake of providing it. It believes that evil should be basically returned with evil and there should be no considerations made to the consequences. There are two different theories in which the deterrent theory can be further divided. These are known as general deterrence and specific deterrent. 

The general deterrence, the punishment is provided in order to avoid any crime in the future. So, the law will make an example of all the defendants. Hence, the citizens will be afraid to commit any other crime like that. 

Another one of the theories and kinds of punishment in the deterrence category includes specific deterrence. This is where the criminals will be educated. Hence, there is a chance for reformation for the criminals. 

Retributive Theory

This is another one of the different theories and it is considered to be one of the ancient ones. According to this theory, the person definitely deserves to be punished because of the crime that he/she has committed. Apart from that, this theory states that a person shall not be arrested unless they have actually broken any form of the law. This is one of the most prominent theories of punishment for sure. In this theory, the person will be taken as a criminal if they have performed any crime that has certain culpability. Also, if similar people have been considered as offenders for the same crime, then only the person will be arrested. The penalty provided to the criminal will be equal to the loss that has been caused to the person. 

Preventive Theory

This is another one of the kinds of punishment in criminal law that states that in case the offender repeats the crime that they have already committed once, they will be culpable for a death sentence, imprisonment, or exile. This is a theory that is based on the fact that society needs to have proper protection from criminals. Hence the punishment was created for defense and solidarity.

Reformative Theory

The reformative theory is another one of the different theories of punishment. it is mostly considered to be a positive theory since the focus of the theory is on positive thinking. According to the reformative theory, the main objective would be to reform the criminal who has committed the crime. The theory can be seen not as a punishment but as a process of rehabilitation. Thus, this is a process that helps in transforming the criminal into a good citizen in the best way possible. The criminals are allowed to live a meaningful life after they have served the punishment. 

These are some of the important theories of punishment in criminal law. These theories help in deciding what type of punishment should the criminal get in case a crime has been committed.