Can Punitive Measures Curtail Crime?

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Crime remains the most pressing problems of all times presenting the biggest challenge to the development of any nation. Apart from the effect of fear of crime and violence of victims, it also has a devastating impact on the society. It is extremely important that all efforts should be made to reduce the level of crime in a society. But the question of concern is what measures can be taken to reduce the level of crime? What types of controls should be used so that the crime rate reduces to an optimal level? This paper will analyze the importance of punitivity in social welfare and as crime control policy. It is essential to understand the concept of punitivty as it is the attitude towards punishment. For example people in U.K. and U.S have a high punitive attitude towards young criminals. A survey was conducted to find out the punitive attitude of people and 51% of those who were surveyed said that a second time burglar should be punished. Now the question is whether punitive attitude a good method of controlling crime? The idea is to highlight the attitude towards punishment and find out ways which can help in reducing the levels of crime.

SOCIAL CONTROLS

All societies impose some form of controls over its people either in the form of government regulations or in the form of social norms. The basic idea of a social control is to limit or control the behavior of an individual so that he cannot harm any other individual. Since it is the responsibility of the state to protect the rights of all individuals, it sets up certain rules and regulations which need to be followed so as to maintain peace and harmony in the society. The purpose of social controls is to protect people from other human beings living in the same societ...

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...punishment inculcates the idea of revenge in the criminal, therefore the best way to reduce crime and violence is to rehabilitate the criminals. This refers to the moral and behavioral rehabilitation of the criminals by providing them education and an environment which can help them in reaching their potential. However, the critics to this approach claim that it is a very expensive and time consuming alternative to punishment. They also claim that once these criminals get out the rehabilitation centers, they restart their criminal activities as they are born like that and the best approach to modify their behavior is punishment.

Reduction in Crime Requires Change in Society

There is a certain group of people who claim that neither punishment, nor rehabilitation is a solution to crime. Instead they focus on changing the values and beliefs of the entire society.

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