Modern Criminal Justice System

Garland (2011) stated, “that in the penal welfare framework, the offending individual was the centre stage and the primary focus of criminological concern. Sentencing as he stated was to be individualized to meet the offender’s particular needs and potential for reform. To obtain penal action, the individual’s life history, social and psychological accounts comes to play but, the individual characteristics were in theory the key determinant of all penal actions. In vivid contrast, the individual victim featured hardly at all. For the most part, he or she remained a silent abstraction, a background figure whose individuality is hardly registered, whose personal wishes and concerns had no place in the process.” (p. 179)
In our society, modern forms of punishment in today’s criminal justice system include sentences such as fines, public service, confinement, forced labor, solitary confinement, and the death penalty. While not specifically a reflection of the crime, we generally require that the punishment “fit the crime,” meaning less severe offenses merits a less severe punishment. For example, one would typically not be sentenced to death for speeding in a school zone. In Punishment Response, Newman (2008) defines punishment as painful or unpleasant consequences intentionally administered by an authority for an offense …show more content…
In our current criminal justice system, it has become modernized and different types of punishment are imposed on different offences. Historical types of punishment still exist in some cases today in other parts of the world. Legal challenges have been one of the contributing factors for the reason why the system has been modernized of the criminal justice system. Our society has taken crime as one of the most serious problems. There are continuous debates as to if the punishment fits the crime, but alternative policies are used when dealing with crimes which are not as harsh as historical