Which is Better? Rewards or Punishments?

Punishment : A Brief Introduction

The term ‘punishment’ is a very complex one. Even in the ancient tribes there have been punishments for the wrong deeds that people perform. Bronislaw Malinowski who was a British social anthropologist, wrote ‘crime and custom in savage society’ in 1926 and there he has stated that there were no law for punishments in the primitive societies. Criminals do not think about the punishments that will be given for what they have done. That is why the crime rates in the contemporary world increases.

In the contemporary society, there are several organizations that have created with the purpose of giving punishments. To illustrate, courts and police stations are there to execute law and to do investigations about crimes. There are prisons and rehabilitating centers in order to execute punishment.

However, punishments have done by the customs of the society. Customs that were used for punishments have turned into laws with the evolution of human beings and the society. Basically, the objectives of punishments have changed with the evolution. They can be listed as following.

- Punishment as Retribution

- Punishment as a Deterrent

-.Punishment as a means of Reformation

- Punishment as a social solidarity

The ruler who is called as Hamurābi has given punishments to the extent that the crime is done. He has used the approach of eye to eye; tooth to tooth etc. this can be considered as taking revenge. If the community thinks that the punishment that will be given from the court for the defendant, then it will lead to take revenge from the defendant. In this type of a society uses punishment as retribution.

It is accepted that giving punishments in an accepted manner by the society is able to make a fear to do criminal activities because no one likes suffering. It is able to control criminal activities by making a fear from doing wrong deeds. The criminologists like Bentham, Beccaria and Sammuel Romilly have suggested that punishments should be given by using fear for punishments and also punishment should be tally with the weight of the crime. This view can be considered as a further development of revenge.

Moreover, the reformative theory of punishment suggests that one does crimes because of their mental phenomena, their behavior and their character. Therefore, it is possible to control crimes by changing the mental phenomena, the character and the behavior of the people. For that imprisonment and detaining in a probate are used. This theory does not use killing, revenge or fear and it only use education in order to make discipline of the defendant.

Furthermore, the term ‘imprisonment’ has a bit evaluation since before imprisonment has used as a method of keeping away the criminals from the society in order to decrease the crime rates. However, nowadays imprisonment has developed into individual rehabilitation.

Imprisonment is used to make the criminal a moral person by giving an intellectual and moral disciplinary practice.  Probation is used to rehabilitate a criminal without keeping him away from the society and rehabilitate them by getting the support from the society. This method has developed by Lombroso and his followers namely E.Ferri and R.Garofalo.

Thus, Emile Durkheim along with American sociologists Robert k.Merton and Kingsly Davis hold the view of giving punishment as a social solidarity. That means he states that punishment is a requirement for the wellbeing of the society and for its development. The majority of the society does not do crimes and only the minority of the society does crimes. Therefore, that minority should be punished in order to secure the wellbeing of the majority. For that, they suggests punishment should be there as a social solidity.

Sociologists like E.h.Sutherland and D.R.Kreesi has stated that there are four characteristics of punishment as,

- Uniformity

- Certainty

- Celerity

- Severity

Other than that, there three theoretical views that have formed on punishment. They are,

- Theory of cultural consistency

- The Scape-goat theory

- Social structure theories

The theory of cultural consistency states that punishments are the response that the society holds against the violation of law and peace. Violation of law is a barrier to the wellbeing of the society. The Scape-goat theory says that people perform evil deeds according to their way of the construction of innate ideas. Legal methods are used to give punishments. Social structure theories on punishments are composed by the European sociologists and it has included four main theories.

- Theory of punishment and economic status- for the crimes that happen due to economical factors

- Theory of punishment and middle class- for the people who live in the middle class of a society

- Theory of punishment and the division of labor- for the systematical order of the society

- Theory of punishment and social disorganization- homogeneous societies do not have punishments and heterogeneous societies are often use punishments.

Furthermore, in the Sri Lankan society, the ruler/king was the authoritative person who was able to give punishments. There have been thirty-two punishment methods in the ancient times in Sri Lanka. It was called as ‘dethis wadhaya’. The next article would explain 'rewards' and will compare both.

Works Cited

Adler, Freda; Mueller, Gerhard O W; Laufer, William S;. (2007). Criminology (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Gardiner, G. (1956). Capital Punishment as a deterrent:and the Alternative. London: Victor Gollancz.

Karunathilake, K. (1998). Aparadha, Balaparada Saha Punarutthapanaya. Kadawatha: Malinga Publishers.