Sentencing Goals and Sentencing Models

Sentencing Models Paper
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Sentencing Models Paper
Compare and contrast the four main sentencing goals (retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation) and the advantages and weaknesses of each goal.
Incapacitation reduces crime by removing a defendant from the community. Incapacitation methods comprise imprisonment or the death penalty. The purpose of incapacitation is to physically prevent an offender from committing additional crimes against the public while serving a sentence by removing them from society (White, 2018). Incapacitation effectively lowers crime rates, albeit to undetermined scope, but it is costly to execute. The advantage of this is that the individual is undoubtedly imprisoned and can obtain assistance. The flaw is that they cannot be kept around forever, and rehabilitation might not be successful.
Rehabilitation modifies a defendant’s behavior to deter felonies. Rehabilitation offers diverse programs to imprisoned persons, like educational and vocational initiatives, drug therapy treatment, and support for mental health issues. The benefit of this is that the condemned person may leave prison and become an active member of society (Berryessa, 2020). The flaw is that society risks becoming the victim of another crime by the condemned individual if they cannot reintegrate into society as someone new. However, assessments of correctional facilities reveal that due to insufficient funding, the framework does not consistently deter or lessen crime (Berryessa, 2020).
Retribution deters felonies by inspiring a sense of reprisal in victims or society. The problem with revenge is that not everyone guilty of a crime will be sentenced to jail or prison, which may make up for the financial cost of the punishment. Instead, some persons may receive probation and be required to pay fines as payback to the victim. However, due to the defendant’s lack of resources, the victim might never receive what they are legally entitled to (Watamura & Ioku, 2022). Additionally, it has been argued that punishment needs to take a more rehabilitative approach because simply punishing individuals for their felonies does not tackle the underlying community challenges that trigger criminality in the first place.
Deterrence is dispiriting an action or incident via enforcing misgiving or fear of the outcomes. It can concentrate on both targeted and general discouragement to avert future felonies. Deterrence also refers to preventing someone from committing a...