Show K K v why we punish criminals to safeguard our t rights and persons and property by M K THOMSON ph D aaa arf AAA A AAA AA A AAA WE criminals because we dont know what else to do with them the word punish Is significant it harks back to the time when revenge vas the dominating motive an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth we look upon the criminal as an enemy nho must be destroyed fear anger revenge are the common motives that actuate our attitude criminals are also punished tor the purpose of making example them with the hope that this will have a restraining influence on others unusually severe and even cruel forms of punishment are meted out to crim finals largely on this basis society Is blow to learn the lesson that the severity of the does not deter crime in fact the more severe the penalty the less chance there Is of obtaining a conviction before a jury one authority states that during the eighteenth century when different offenses were by death in england crime flourished lie adds that even when pocket picking was punishable by death a public hanging where everybody was looking upward was a favorite place or pick pockets to ply their trade according to the crime records of a large american city only 15 per cent of those tried for felony were actually actu illy cent to prison from another great american city the records show thit for every ago murders committed in that city only one murderer was executed we punish criminals to safeguard our rights and persons and property to get even with the offender to male nn example of him that others may be discouraged from following his example and finally to help reclaim the criminal himself and male a decent citizen of him insofar as that Is pos elble by mcclure newspaper syndicate |