Quote Originally Posted by bmolsson
You can divide in punishment in 3 categories:
Hey I already gave the three possible justifications
1. Prevention (thanks for the word, by the way ).
A law is there for a reason. The punishment for breaking this law should be so costly that it prevents people breaking it. Very much like military balance actually.
This is correct, an many eminent jurists defend this possition, but I prefer retribution for the reasons i just gave.
2. Protection.
Some crimes require the society to be protected from the individual, therefore the punishment has to remove the individual from the society, hence protecting it from his actions.
Well the second possition is called special prevention, and it's about protecting and re-educating.
3. Retribution
This is the moral part. Some would argue that "re-education" is better than revenge. I believe that this portion is always the one that is under hefty discussions. Bottomline is that you want to satisfy the victim and teach the criminal, in what ever order that works for you. For the society itself it's irrelevant as long as 1 and 2 are fulfilled.
You're wrong it has little to do with morals, it has to do a lot with debts, like when you adquire a monetary debt with other. And the second part is specially wrong, retribution has nothing to do with re-education, the defenders always argue: "stay in prison and go out" nothing of education. The education as said is on the second relative teory, the special prevention, wich treats the person like a puppet. It matters very little what people thinks, penal law has a dogma, wich should be respected, those first two positions go beyond that dogma entering criminology or politics.
I think that its important to identify the society here. Its a powerstructure with the purpose to organise and standardize a group of individuals. The main objectives of the society are more important than the individuals and therefore there are many times disagreements which has to be enforced.
This is another misconception. In fact the individual is just as impostant as the society, that's why he has guarantees and inherent rights.