Criminal justice theory has four main philosophies: punishment, retribution, deterrence, and reform. Punishment and retribution aim to punish offenders, while deterrence and reform aim to prevent future crimes. Critics argue that punishment and retribution have no practical benefit, while deterrence theory involves heavy penalties and may not significantly reduce crime. Reform theory aims to transform criminals into productive members of society through social programs, but critics argue it is a misuse of tax dollars.
Criminal justice theory involves four main philosophies that guide the policies that determine how a government handles its problems with crime. The first two, the theory of punishment and the theory of retribution, are intertwined. The idea in each is to punish the offender, with the retribution theory focusing on the victim’s satisfaction with that punishment. The other two main theories of criminal justice, the deterrent theory and the reform theory, aim to prevent future crimes. They try to achieve this by discouraging others from committing the same crimes or by turning the individual criminal into a productive member of society.
Criminal justice theory of retribution espouses the idea that people should suffer repercussions for the wrongs they commit against society. It’s a simple theory focused on the negative consequences of unwanted acts. Critics of this theory of criminal justice argue that it is short-sighted policy. Although the criminal may get what he thinks he deserves for his actions in one sense, there is no positive practical benefit and all that society is left with is a hardened criminal.
Similar to this philosophy is the retributive theory of criminal justice, although the focus is on the victim rather than the offender. The idea is that the victim of a crime should be entitled to the satisfaction of seeing the person who harmed her suffer negative consequences for her actions. The arguments against this philosophy are similar to those for the theory of punishment; there is no practical benefit to society if the aim is simply to punish the offender.
Criminal justice deterrence theory is the first of four philosophies that espouse the idea that criminal justice should be focused on the big picture, rather than just the individuals involved in the crime in question. Central to this philosophy is the idea that if people see others experiencing negative repercussions for their actions, it will discourage them from doing so. Critics of the deterrence theory argue that the threat of punishment does not significantly reduce crime as proponents of the theory claim. Furthermore, deterrence theory often involves heavy penalties for crimes to achieve their intended effect, resulting in harsher sentences than is reasonable for the crime.
The ultimate theory of criminal justice is the reform theory, which is a progressive theory aimed at transforming criminals into productive members of society. Proponents of the reform theory argue that social programs run through prisons can provide criminals with practical skills they can use once they are released into society, which will make resorting to crime less likely. Critics deride the costs of the programs as a misuse of citizens’ tax dollars.
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