Crime and Punishment
Crime is as old as the human existence itself. As long as human beings have walked this earth there has been crime ranging from petty thieving to murder and even tortures untold.
And this crime cannot go unchecked. It needs to at least be restricted if not actually eradicated.
One effective way to control or restrict crime followed by countries and kingdoms for over centuries is to punish the offender or criminal.
It has been a centuries-old debate on “how to punish a particular offender for a particular offense and how severe should it be.”
Different countries have different, maybe even contradictory views on this.
In America, the statistics show that, the states that still follow the death penalty still have the highest rates of crime in the country. Also, Canada seems to have a lower crime rate after abolishing the death penalty.
In fact, police officials in Canada go so far as to state that there is evidence that the death penalty did nothing or very less to reduce the crime rate.
Now, let us look at the opinion from another part of the world.
In 1987, in Saudi Arabia, drug smugglers and those who received and distributed drugs from abroad were made subject to the death sentence for bringing "corruption" into the country. First-time offenders faced prison termsflogginggs, and fines, or a combination of all three punishments. Those convicted for a second time faced execution. According to the police, as a result of this law in 2 yearsÂ’ time addiction was reduced by 60 percent and drug use by 26 percent.
What I intend to bring out from these examples is that what might be good for one place or country might not work for another one - “One man’s food is another’s poison. “
Also, punishment can only restrict or control crime but never eradicate it. This is because crime is a highly psychological element. The same person who has never committed a single crime all his life, when placed in a position of power starts committing crime. We have all heard the proverb “power corrupts”.
It is not that the thought of committing a crime just entered him. But that it stayed buried in his sub-conscious self all along and he used the first opportunity to offend.
I believe that crime can be eradicated in the long run if we got to the roots of the problem and focus on what actually makes a person commit crime and how we can correct it at the root level itself. This would reduce crime and make punishment unnecessary.
In the modern day world, in most homes, both parents are at work and due to the high popularity of nuclear families; children are let in the care of baby-sitters most of the time or in many cases simply left home alone. This leads to depression and also the child grows up away from other people most of the time and this turns the child into being hard hearted and makes the child not respect others and their lives much.
This scant regard for others grows with the child and leads to his/her committing crimes.
Also, since the child has nobody to listen to, to guide and to offer proper advice, does not know to face problems or how it can be solved mutually. Thus the child resorts to violence. And if unchecked this might even turn the child into a homicidal maniac.
Another reason for the high level of crimes is the deplorable status of enforcement department. Most of the times for the same crime that a commoner is heavily punished, a man who has reasonable power can get away with it.
Also, corruption is rampant in our country and it enables a person in power to find loopholes big enough to fit the size of his/her crime.
These reasons are pretty much the tip of the iceberg but they are definitely a good start and if these little issues that make a man a criminal are taken care of, the crime rate would run itself to extinction and make punishments unnecessary.
And this crime cannot go unchecked. It needs to at least be restricted if not actually eradicated.
One effective way to control or restrict crime followed by countries and kingdoms for over centuries is to punish the offender or criminal.
It has been a centuries-old debate on “how to punish a particular offender for a particular offense and how severe should it be.”
Different countries have different, maybe even contradictory views on this.
In America, the statistics show that, the states that still follow the death penalty still have the highest rates of crime in the country. Also, Canada seems to have a lower crime rate after abolishing the death penalty.
In fact, police officials in Canada go so far as to state that there is evidence that the death penalty did nothing or very less to reduce the crime rate.
Now, let us look at the opinion from another part of the world.
In 1987, in Saudi Arabia, drug smugglers and those who received and distributed drugs from abroad were made subject to the death sentence for bringing "corruption" into the country. First-time offenders faced prison termsflogginggs, and fines, or a combination of all three punishments. Those convicted for a second time faced execution. According to the police, as a result of this law in 2 yearsÂ’ time addiction was reduced by 60 percent and drug use by 26 percent.
What I intend to bring out from these examples is that what might be good for one place or country might not work for another one - “One man’s food is another’s poison. “
Also, punishment can only restrict or control crime but never eradicate it. This is because crime is a highly psychological element. The same person who has never committed a single crime all his life, when placed in a position of power starts committing crime. We have all heard the proverb “power corrupts”.
It is not that the thought of committing a crime just entered him. But that it stayed buried in his sub-conscious self all along and he used the first opportunity to offend.
I believe that crime can be eradicated in the long run if we got to the roots of the problem and focus on what actually makes a person commit crime and how we can correct it at the root level itself. This would reduce crime and make punishment unnecessary.
In the modern day world, in most homes, both parents are at work and due to the high popularity of nuclear families; children are let in the care of baby-sitters most of the time or in many cases simply left home alone. This leads to depression and also the child grows up away from other people most of the time and this turns the child into being hard hearted and makes the child not respect others and their lives much.
This scant regard for others grows with the child and leads to his/her committing crimes.
Also, since the child has nobody to listen to, to guide and to offer proper advice, does not know to face problems or how it can be solved mutually. Thus the child resorts to violence. And if unchecked this might even turn the child into a homicidal maniac.
Another reason for the high level of crimes is the deplorable status of enforcement department. Most of the times for the same crime that a commoner is heavily punished, a man who has reasonable power can get away with it.
Also, corruption is rampant in our country and it enables a person in power to find loopholes big enough to fit the size of his/her crime.
These reasons are pretty much the tip of the iceberg but they are definitely a good start and if these little issues that make a man a criminal are taken care of, the crime rate would run itself to extinction and make punishments unnecessary.
