Death Penalty: The Five Goals Of Criminal Sentencing

Every time a crime is committed there is a punishment that follows, whether it be a death sentence, or jail time, or maybe just some community service and an apology. The point is for every crime there is a difference in punishment. The differences of the punishments are called the five goals of criminal sentencing, each of them being important and useful in different ways. They list as; Retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restoration. The first one that we come across is retribution in the old days we as a society might have referred to retribution as the old saying “an eye for an eye.” When looking at retribution we are looking at the crime that the criminal committed and then trying to serve a correct punishment …show more content…
The central idea of incapacitation is to prevent future crimes from happening it falls under a category of punishment. Incapacitation is the idea of retraining someone from further doing anything else wrong. There are many types and forms of retraining that can come about such as a life sentence in prison or the highest form of incapacitation, the death penalty. Back before humane laws were involved another form of incapacitation included possible lobotomies. Just like everything else in the world though incapacitation has its ups and downs. For example most people do not agree with incapacitation due to the fact that it is only applicable and working while the criminal is in prison. It is seen as a temporary solution because when the criminal is released he or she is at free will to commit another crime. Citizens also believe that just because a criminal is taken off the streets for the crime doesn’t mean they won’t stop the crime once inside prison. They believe it just moves the crime to a different location. Because prison time is expensive, citizens not always agree with incapacitation because it can cost the fellow taxpayers up to 30,000 dollars a year to house …show more content…
It is a little bit of a different take on sentencing. Sometimes when a crime is committed it can change a person, the witness, or maybe the family. When criminals are involved with a crime as catastrophic as murder for example the victim might be traumatized along with the family. Whether it be emotionally, psychically, or maybe both. That is where restoration comes in. The goal of restoration is to bring the victim back together again. Or according to “Criminal justice a brief introduction,” The idea of restoration is to bring the victim back to whole again. Usually when a criminal is sentenced to a restoration sentence, they will also be ordered to pay what’s called restitution. Restitution fines may cover any damages the offender caused or medical expenses. Sometimes along with restoration the offender will have to serve in some form of community