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Justice and Punishment - Coggle Diagram

- - - - prison is necessary to protect society and make people feel safe
      - JS Mill- "the only purpose for which power can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilised community against his will is to prevent harm to others. His own good is not a sufficient warrant"
      - justified on utilitarian grounds as greater good results from protection of whole community
      - prison can also protect criminal from society e.g. people who take issue into own hands
    - - based on OT idea of Lex Talionis= "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth"- implying that people must bear consequences of wrong doing
      - compensate the victims of the crime
      - Wilcockson- refers to it as "backward looking" as doesn't aim to reduce crime but just gives criminals what they deserve
      - Kant- "when someone who delights in annoying and vexing peace loving folk recevies at last a right good beating, it is certainly an ill but everyone approves of it and considers it as good in itself
      - Rachels sees it as acceptable to treat criminals the way they've treated others- justice for victim
      - On other hand:
        
        'Lex Talionis' only relevant if crime was intended- those who commit crime by accident can't be punished in same way as those who intended to commit crime
        
        Vardy & Grosch use example of wife who has been victim of domestic abuse and kills her husband in self-defence compared with armed robbers killing a bank official
        
        doesn't take into account mental state of person who commits crime
        
        Wilcockson calls it- "barbaric and void of any human compassion or benevolence"
        
        can't be applied to everyone e.g. sex offender
      - OAHE
        
        alternative is Restorative Justice
        
        repair harm done by criminal behaviour
        
        3 key values
        
        Encounter- criminal and victim discuss crime and effects
        
        Amends- criminal must atone for harm caused
        
        Reintergration- fully restore victim and criminal to society
        
        Bowie says that this may lead on to the reformation of the character of the criminal because they realise the harm caused and will not reoffend
    - - forward looking and aims to change the character of the criminal
      - aims to reinforce important values to the criminal and give them a second chance and let them return to society as a useful member
      - 3 concerns:
        
        prisons don't offer right conditions for this
        
        criminal behaviour can become hardened through time in prison and contacts can be made and teachniques learned from others in prison
        
        Vardy and Grosch see prisons as "schools of crime"
        
        Bowie argued that half of all prisoners reoffend within 2 years
        
        How do we know that prisoner has been rehabilitated?
        
        putting on an act & saying right thing to get released
        
        but will reoffend
        
        victims of crime may feel that justice has not been served as so much attention paid to the rehabilitation of the criminal that crime goes unnoticed
    - - forward-looking
      - discourage people from commiting crimes either through preventing criminals from reoffending or putting off would be criminals as they may decide that the crime isn't worth the risk of being punished in the way others have been
      - For example, capital punishment can act as deterrent
    - - show society that laws must be respected and law breaking will not be tolerated
      - authorities aim to uphold the laws and justice
  - - - corporal punishment
      - e.g. loss of hand to a thief or capital punishment
    - - taking goods away from criminals who have accumulated wealth through drug dealing
      - imposing fines as quick & effective punishment
    - - e.g. electronic tagging, curfew, imprisonment which disallows freedom of movement
      - imposition of community service where the criminal must do something positive for society to compensate for wrongdoing
    - - public shaming e.g. publication of sex offenders' list
      - to protect society
- - - - idea of 'eye for eye' known as lex talionis
      - meant to limit the amount of punishment you received- what you did done to you
      - all punishments are proportionate to the crime
    - - emphasises importance of disciplining children in a family context
      - hitting child is acceptable as a form of discipline and it is most loving thing to do
      - Deuteronomy 21v 18-21 goes further by teaching that if a son refuses to obey his mother & father- "... then all the men of his town shall stone him to death"
  - - - known as Anthitheses
      - Jesus takes teachings from the Jewish Law and updates them
      - means that Christians should not accept punishment as act of revenge
    - - punishment for adultery was death by stoning
      - Jesus said that the one who had never sinned should be first to cast a stone
      - all the executioners had done wrong themselves and were in not condition to condemn someone else
      - seems to suggest that Jesus is against the death penalty
    - - Jesus taught people to look at their own faults rather than being quick to find fault with others
      - Harrington- Jesus teaching not to judge others harshly "does not rule out the practice of correction within the community"
    - - McKenzie comments that meaning of parable is "the forgiveness of God knows no limit and neither should man's forgiveness"
    - - God is willing to forgive our sins as long as we truly repent
      - Repentance- 'transformative change of heart; a turning away from sin
      - Repentance= 'Metanoia' in Greek
    - - if we are unmerciful or unforgiving in relation to those who have sinned against us, we in return will be excluded from God's mercy
    - - need for a Christian to forgive those who have harmed them was exemplified by Jesus when he forgave his killers on the cross
- - - - hard determinists- human freedom is an illusion, we act according to our genetics or upbringing, cannot be held responsible for actions
      - soft determinists- even though some of our behaviour has been result of genetics or upbringing we still have freedom and are responsible for actions
    - - Freud
        
        we are not free, but we act according to our upbringing as our brain has been conditioned by what have learnt from life experiences
        
        sense of right and wrong developed from experiences
        
        if not free cannot be punished
        
        Bowie= "if human actions are caused by external influences, the people can't be morally responsible for those action"
      - Skinner
        
        human freedom is an illusion
        
        every human action= result of 2 things:
        
        genetic blueprint passed on at conception
        
        experiences of events of our childhood
        
        "it is the environment which is responsible for the objectionable behaviour, and it is the environment, not some attribute of the individual, which must be changed"
    - - american lawyer who defended Loeb and Leopald
      - argued they weren't morally responsibility for their actions
      - we're all products of our heredity and environment and therefore have no control over themselves
    - - actions may be influenced by upbringing and environment and genes, but these factors "influence" rather than "determine" our behaviour
      - Clark comments- "full blown determinism would therefore undercut a basic premise of both the Christian faith and our common understanding as human beings, that we possess enough freedom to be held responsible for what we do"
- - - - human life= sacred as made in image of God
      - OT especially seeks to protect the sanctity of life by sanctioning the death penalty for people who had taken the life of another human
      - "whoever sheds the blood man, by man shall his blood be shed"- Genesis 9 v 6
        
        if you take a life, yours will be taken
    - - Lex Talionis sanctioned punishment on basis of revenge
      - JS Mill- '... he who violates that right of another forfeits if for himself, and that while no other crime that he can commit deprives him of his right to life, this shall'
    - - only effective deterrent
      - Sir James FitzJames Stephen- "... no other punishment deters men so effectually from committing crimes as the punishment of death"
      - Vardy and Grosch- "few murders are committed by people who weigh up the likely consequences"
      - Michael Wilcockson- no conclusive relationship between the death penalty and a lower murder rate
    - - life sentence rarely means life and so this means that dangerous criminals could be released back into society
      - Wilcockson- ".... the finality of the death penalty means peace of mind"
      - e.g. Ted Bundy escaped prison twice & after second time killed last three victims before was finally captured again
    - - prison sentences= waste of taxpayers money
      - death penatly is cheaper method of dealing with crime
    - - capital punishment doesn't rehabilitate the prisoner and return them to society
      - E.g. people condemned to death take opportunity of the time before execution to repent, express, remorse, and very often experience profound spiritual rehabilitation
      - e.g. Stanley Tookie Williams
    - - provides closure for victims families
  - - - not appropriate to apply the OT to issues we have in society today
      - Jesus' teaching promotes concepts of love, forgiveness, and compassion
      - people should be treated with mercy e.g. treatment of adulterous women
      - Mosaic Law supports capital punishment for up to 18 different offences e.g. idoltary, adultery and witchcraft
    - - commandment "you shall not murder" should be regarded as moral absolute
      - capital punishment required taking of life it is contrary to the divine command
    - - death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice and mistake... Experience has taught is that the constitutional goal of eliminating arbitrariness and discrimination from the administration of death... can never be achieved without compromising an equally essential component of fundamental fairness- individualized sentencing
      - Jurors in many US death penalty must be 'death eligible'- prospective juror must be willing to convict knowing that sentence of death is possible
    - - makes state guilty of the crime they are punishing
    - - all ways of executing people cause so much suffering (mental and physical) to the condemned person that they amount to torture & are wrong
      - Goes against UDHR article 3- right to life and freedom and UDHR article 5- no one subjected to torture or inhumane treatment
      - Methods= lethal gas, electrocution or strangulation
      - other methods e.g. firing squad or beheading have been avoided as too 'hands on'
      - problem is medical personnel used and this goes against their Hippocratic Oath
      - lethal injection not as humane as people think
        
        levels of anaesthetic found in offenders consistent with wakefulness and ability to experience pain
        
        e.g. Clayton Locket
    - - 'the death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will envitably claim innocent victims. As long as human justice remains falliable, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated- Amnesty International
      - e.g. Dereck Bently- accused of shooting a police officer, even though being held by other police officers at time of the shooting, his accomplice who was too young to face death penalty, so Bently was killed instead in 1953
    - - e.g. Cecil Clayton
      - "rid itself of one of the most shameful aspects of indecent punishment- the execution of people with serious mental illnesses
      - Arthur Koestler and Clarence Darrow argued that human beings never act freely and thus should not be punished for even the most horrific crimes
    - - Capital punishment costs US great deal of money
      - e.g. cost of convicting and executing Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing was over $13 million