The Five Key Theories Of Punishment In Australia

508 Words2 Pages

Australia’s present legal system currently has 5 key theories of punishment. These are used to structure the rules and regulations of Australia to overall make a safe and controlled nation. The key theories include Retribution, rehabilitation, denunciation, deterrence, protection. The first key theory of punishment is Retribution. In the retributivist theory, the punishment given is seen as a form of ‘payback’ depending on the depth of crimes committed. The retributive Theory argues that criminals warrant the punishment on account of their felony. Therefor meaning that If punishment is deserved, then justice demands punishment. (Mohanty, 2017). The second theory is Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation calls for changing the individual criminal through the use of correctional interventions, such as drug‐treatment programs. …show more content…

This helps to counter habitual offending (N.A 2016). Next is the denunciation theory. This consists of the sentencing main objective to express society’s disapproval of the crime that was committed. the theory is less about placing blame on the particular offender and more about defining the values and moral code of society (Gardner, 2015) The fourth theory of punishment is deterrence. The theory has two key expectations, this being that specific punishments imposed on criminal offenders could prevent the offender from committing further crimes. The other is hoping that the fear of punishment could prevent others from committing similar crimes (James, 2018). Finally, the last theory of punishment is protection. Protection motivation theory suggest the main components of fear appeal to society. fear appeal relies on the response that individuals make when a threat is made. A Threat could include change to person’s well-being such as lack of freedom, money or living standard. This theory is used to overall make people fear breaking the

Open Document