Why Do Psychopaths Be Punished?

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Throughout the course of the semester, we can talked about whether or not criminals should be punished. There are different ways to go about answering this question, but it could get rather complicated when certain circumstances are given. In this essay, I will be using Jeffrie Murphy’s reading and will be arguing that psychopaths should be punished. Punishing a psychopath allows them to accept responsibility for the actions. Even though they can’t fully understand the moral wrongdoings, punishment could still benefit by allowing time to reflect on their actions. Finally, punishment would satisfy the victim and society as a whole. Psychopaths are defined as “an individual who lacks what in the eighteenth century was generally called moral …show more content…

Although it may be something that the psychopath doesn’t understand, the victim and those who live within the society may feel that they have been wronged and to punish is to help both feel more at ease. Some may argue that we shouldn’t punish psychopaths because they don’t deserve the right to be punished, “and this explains why he may be excused from responsibility and punishment- namely, punishment may be regarded as a right, and he is in no position to claim rights” (291 Murphy). If you think of it from this perspective, then no the psychopath doesn’t have this “right”. But, we should not ignore the rights of those who were wronged by their harmful actions. We shouldn’t punish the psychopath for the sake of the psychopath, rather we should respect the rights of the victim and society. In terms of benefitting society, punishing them could also lead to a deterrent effect for other criminals in general. A point that was brought up in class was that when people notice a crime, they will not stop and think, “they were not punished because they are psychopaths”. People will just noticed that someone who committed a crime isn’t being punished. Punishing can lead to justice for society and those who were harmed, “Justice, to put it briefly, can apply only to those having a sense of justice” (291 Murphy), and even though it can be argued that psychopaths

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