Punishment: A Sufficient Deterrent to Crime?

When there's a breakdown of law and order in society, or even a command at home, there are consequences for doing that. It's expected, in accordance with formal or informal set standards, rules or principles that you go through some measures to pay for that wrong or crime. This is common in homes, institutions, organisations, and society as a whole. In a nutshell, punishments are invoked as consequences for wrongdoings.

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This discourse is on society as a whole, and in tandem with law and order, and the punishments that come from going against that. But I mentioned the home severally already because this is also applied at that basic level of human existence and relationship. When children go wrong, they are punished, and in different ways, in order to inform them that they messed up, they broke a rule, what they did is wrong and shouldn't be repeated.

Even though some parents tend to punish out of anger not to correct, the actual purpose of punishments at that level is to correct and mould the child well. When we go to the bigger scenes, where punishments are employed in societies, nations, the world at large, there's a close narrative, though the case is different, treatment is different, and when execution especially is involved, it goes beyond the similar idea of correcting and training.

Punishments have been employed in dealing with crimes and breakdown of law and order. However, we see a continuous surge, I might say, of these crimes happening. Can it be said that the punishments employed for committing crimes don't work? Is punishment not enough to deter or discourage people from engaging in crimes? This leaves a big question indeed, if punishment works or why it isn't working.

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The enforcement of punishments for engaging in crimes serves as a tool for the preservation of law and order, and adherence to rules and regulations, be it in society as a whole or in various institutions and the home. Like with the home, when people are punished through imprisonment, community service and more, it's meant to show them that they went against spelt-out rules, which isn't right and so they're getting the consequences for that.

When it involves life imprisonment or a death sentence, it's not just a message to them as they're helpless in that situation. It's also a message to all, to know that such isn't and won't be condoned. The nature of crime determines the punishment. But the question remains whether punishment is working since we still see crimes happening, even that which could involve a death sentence? Well, punishment is serving its purpose, but people do what they want to.

Without punishments helping to enforce law and order, we would have a society in anarchy. Though we don't see a complete eradication of crimes, it would've been worse without punishments. Laws and rules are powerless in the absence of punishment. It has kept and is keeping many from engaging in crimes, but obviously, some people would do otherwise. So, punishment works, but not everyone declines crime. That again, is why punishment exists.

Thank you for reading!