There are two different forms of human behavior, the first being conformity and lastly deviance. Conformity is behavior that is considered good behavior as it meets and complies with standards set by members of the society, for instance, If it is considered that greeting elders are a good way to behave, people who do it will not face any criticism. Deviance is behavior that is considered bad, it does not meet the requirements/ standards of the society. They depart from acceptable means of living in society, for instance, if an individual does not greet elders, he/she is considered mannerless, thereby the community finds a way to correct that unacceptable behavior.
In almost every community in this world, there’s a way in which they deal with wrongdoers or unacceptable behavior. The wrongdoers either broke the community’s principles/laws or did something not expected to be done by community members. The way in which they are dealt with is known or called punishment. These wrongdoers are named perpetrators/criminals or offenders. The derived meaning of punishment is the act of inflicting a consequence or penalty on someone as a result of their wrongdoing. (Kendall, 2009) A penalty is a punishment imposed for breaking a law, rule, or contract (Robert et al, 2014).
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When children are still young, they are taught ways in which to behave in their societies to meet the standards and behave according to acceptable ways in society. Therefore, in children, punishment is used. This type of punishment is called operant conditioning punishment, which is used to correct behavior. Operant conditioning is a type of associative learning process in which behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment (Eggen and Kauchak, 2013). In operant conditioning, punishment is any change in a human or animal’s surroundings that occur after a given behavior or response, reducing the likelihood of that behavior reoccurring.
There are two types of punishment in operant conditioning, which are positive punishment (punishment by application) and negative punishment (punishment by removal). In positive punishment, a stimulus is added as to get a required response. For instance, if a child keeps playing in the rain even after being told to stop, the parent may spank the child. The likely hood of the behavior occurring reduces. In negative punishment, a stimulus is removed in order to get the desired outcome. For instance, if a child doesn’t clean his/her room, the parents may confiscate his/her electronics to mold the child’s behavior. (Eggen and Kauchak, 2013)
When it comes to adults, punishment may be more severe because adults are able to think and differentiate between right and wrong. Therefore, any wrongdoing is done on purpose. This is where criminal punishment is applied. As stated above, criminal punishment is also inflicting unpleasant penalties on someone as a result of their wrongdoing or breaking the law. There are several ways of punishing criminals, these are through capital punishment, imprisonment, probation, restitution, fines, and community service. In a traditional society, corporal punishment is the number one resort to crimes. It involves striking (lashing) an individual on the back or buttocks with a stick.
Capital punishment (death penalty) is a form of punishment whereby the perpetrator is sentenced to death/execution. These people may be executed using gas chambers, lethal injections, hanging, or an electric chair. For example, if an individual commits murder, he/she may be sentenced to death as murder is a capital crime. Imprisonment is whereby a perpetrator is confined to a room in a facility called a prison, for a certain period. During this time, it is expected that the wrongdoer changes his/her behavior to one accepted by the community. It is given to individuals who commit lesser crimes than capital crimes. For example, if Thato commits a robbery, he may be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Probation is whereby a criminal is monitored for a certain period, to make sure he/she does not repeat his/her wrongful behavior. If the wrongdoer repeats the behavior, the punishment may be upgraded to a more severe punishment like imprisonment. Restitution is also a form of punishment where a wrongdoer returns stolen goods or compensates for what he/she has done. (Kendall, 2009) fines can also be used to punish wrongdoers. Lastly, community service, where a wrongdoer must do some work that benefits the community. For example, forcing wrongdoers to clean public parks to pay back the community for what they have done.
There are four justifications for punishment. Punishment of wrongdoers is typically categorized into, retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. These are ways in which the criminal justice system makes sure that an offender does not repeat the wrongdoings. Taking retribution as the first, it is believed that criminals are aware and willingly commit a crime to gain an advantage over other community members. (Carl Smith, 2006) Therefore, inflicting the same amount of pain as vengeance for a criminal act is done in retribution. Society takes revenge on the perpetrator/offender as he/she knew what they were doing. For example, if Laone kills or murders a member of society, the community may assert revenge on him by sentencing him to death. They believe that this brings equality because the perpetrator took a life, by doing this he/she forfeited their life.
Deterrence is another way of punishment in which the innocents are discouraged from doing wrong or from deviant behavior. In this punishment, a wrongdoer is sentenced to a harsh punishment to scare the innocent from committing the same crime. This helps develop a fear of the consequences that followed if they decided to ignore the law, values, and norms of the society. For example, if someone threatens another (threat to kill), they may be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with no possibility of parole, which would scare off community members who have been doing the same thing but were never convicted. Another example includes a serial child rapist being sentenced to death by lethal injection, doing so posing some anxiety in men and women who have been molesting children in the shadows.
Rehabilitation is also one of the justifications for punishment. In rehabilitation, an offender is believed to have been pressured by their state of living (for example unemployment/economically disadvantaged) therefore leading to crimes. This system aims to make perpetrators law-abiding, by retraining and re-educating them. It mostly involves psychological help and approaches that target cognitive distortions associated with human behavior (Robert et al, 2014). Convicted felons are kept in contact with the outside world and taught life skills, that would help them in being independent in the outside world, in a life without crime. As an example, Thato who was sentenced to 7 years in prison, attends woodwork and carpentry sessions provided by the prison, which would help him become a carpenter when released, thus selling his own work for a living.
The last justification is incapacitation, this is whereby a wrongdoer is sentenced and confined in prison for a specific period. The period chosen for the perpetrators corresponds well with what wrongful activity they have done. Wrongdoer is not allowed in society as punishment because they are considered threats. This alone prevents convicts from committing further crimes as they are restrained and incarcerated. (Western et al, 2005)
I personally believe that incapacitation is not that effective as released convicts always tend to repeat all their crimes to get caught and returned. They believe that they do not have any life in the outside world. It is also expensive to incarcerate, as it involves feeding a criminal doer and cleaning after them, while the innocent out there working hard to pay taxes that are used to sustain the prisoners and teach them new skills. I consider this some sort of benefit of committing a crime. Also, convicts are given free housing, beds, blankets, and given free clothing, while there are homeless people not getting any help. This always results in false confessions to escape their economic crisis and have nothing to lose.
In a nutshell, punishment is a way to try to mold a wrongdoer’s behavior into acceptable behavior. There are four justifications for punishment which are, rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, and incapacitation. Even though justifications are put in place to reduce wrongdoing rates, they are not perfect as some people tend to repeat their crimes. They are several examples of punishment which are, death sentence, community service, fines, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and so on.
References
- D. Kendall (2009). Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials (7th revised ed.). Cengage Learning: pp. 260–69.
- Eggen, P. and Kauchak, D. (2013) Educational psychology: Windows, classrooms. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River.
- J. Robert Lilly, Francis T. Cullen, Richard A. Ball (2014). Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences
- K. M., Carl Smith (2006). 'The roles of retribution and utility in determining punishment'. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
- Western, Bruce and Becky P. (2005). “Black-White Wage Inequality, Employment Rates, and Incarceration.” American Journal of Sociology, Volume 111 Number 2 (September): pp. 553-78
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