Sentencing Philosophy and the Central Purpose of Criminal Punishment

Sentencing Philosophy and the Central Purpose of Criminal Punishment
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The philosophical approach towards sentencing is dominated by these two types of theories-retributive theory plus utilitarian theory (Epps, 2015). These two theories have contributed to further theoretical discussions about deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and restorative justice. The utilitarian theory states that the main objective of punishment as the impediment of future crime-deterrence. The retributive theory focuses on the offender’s past actions since it seeks retribution from law breakers for their crimes. This theory concept is that the goal of punishment is to allot moral blame to the law breaker for the offense and that their future actions is not a proper reason for deciding punishment.
One of the central purpose of punishment is deterrence. Individuals are prevented from events when they cease from doing them out since they have a dislike to the potential outcomes of those actions. Questions on whether deterrence is ethically acceptable arise because it is difficult to assess whether the type of punishment and its severity has an impact on whether a certain punishment is effective (Epps, 2015). Another main aim of punishment is for retribution by the believe that the penalty is justified since it is deserved. When a society sets its rules a moral connection between punishment and guilt is created. Retribution acts as the consensus structure of a society, and a legal system depicts the rules as acting rightly and criminal activities as acting wrongly (Jung, Ahn-Redding & Allison, 2014).
Rehabilitation is another main purpose of a punishment which a more detailed idea entailing a check of the crime and the offen...