Retributive Justice: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

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Recommended: Historical development of punishment

Crime and punishment has made some tremendous changes since the early modern time of the 1600s. A period where a wife, could be found guilty of being a scold, in other words, nagging her husband. Punishments for this crime consist of the wife being duck into the river or pond using a ducking stool that is said to still exist in Canterbury in Kent. The Scold’s Bridle was another form of punishment us for a nagging wife, she was made to wear this bridle as a form of embarrassment for her actions against her husband. In early modern times the homeless made people uncomfortable and scared because of the change in the land that cause them to move from their traditional rural livelihood and became known as vagabonds. If the homeless were cough for such a crime their punishments were to be flogged even put into slavery or executed if caught a second time. Crimes of this nature no longer exist and bring me back to the question, Have changes in punishments made us change the way we think and feel about the crimes themselves?

The legal definition of the eight amendment states ‘Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.’ Meaning that, “the Eighth Amendment does not require strict proportionality between crime and sentence. Rather, it forbids only extreme sentences that are 'grossly disproportionate' to the crime”.

The court decisions are followed and administered without exceeding the eight amendment rules of cruel and unusual punishment. To administer this rule, there are three techniques used by the courts. One, they examined the nature of the offense and the offender. Two, they compared punishment with the penalty for more serious crimes in the sam...

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...punishment in store, but as He is more forgiving than our justice system, I am sure He will give the individual a chance to redeem himself.

Works Cited

Christine Chamberlin ND, Not kid anymore: A need for punishment and deterrence in the juvenile justice system

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/journals/bclawr/42_2/04_TXT.htm

Doug Gibson (2010) High court arrogantly decides what punishment juveniles deserve”

http://blogs.standard.net/2010/05/high-court-arrogantly-decides-what-punishment-juveniles-deserve/

Julian V. Roberts and Mike Hough (2002) Changing Attitudes to Punishment: Public opinion, Crime and Justice.

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/roberts-julian.htm

Learn History 2004

http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/cpp/whatiscrime.htm

The 'Lectric Law Library1995 - 2010

http://www.lectlaw.com/def/e082.htm

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