Law 2101 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Consequentialism
The Concept of Punishment:
The content or nature of punishment is the intentional infliction of suffering.
Hart’s definition of punishment, five cumulative elements:
1. It must involve pain or other consequences normally considered unpleasant.
2. It must be for an offence against legal rules
3. It must be of an actual or supposed offender for his offence
4. It must be intentionally administrated by human being’s other that the offender
5. It must be imposed and administrated by an authority constituted by a legal
system against which the offence is committed.
Packer’s additional element:
6. Not related to the content or nature of punishment but to the goal for which
punishment is imposed, that is to say retribution and/or prevention.
The intentional addition of suffering is therefore an essential element of punishment.
Different theories of punishment:
Retributive theories of punishment:
Who should be punished?
- Emphasizes the inextricable coherence between punishment and guilt in the
sense of culpability or blameworthiness.
- Only when a crime has been freely committed can it be repaid with punishment.
- The crime is the central point of punishment, not the offender.
- Only the wrongful and blameworthy act should be redressed through
punishment, taking into consideration that the offender can act differently in the
future in similar situations.
Why should one be punished?
- Someone should be punished because a crime has been committed.
- The focus is on the past.
- Punishment should be imposed regardless of the goal/effects that can be
pursued in terms of prevention.
- Punishment is in order to “settle the score”.
- Philosophers view on justice demands that crimes should be punished:
o Punishment is intrinsically good because it is purifying
Document Summary
Hart"s definition of punishment, five cumulative elements: it must be intentionally administrated by human being"s other that the offender. The intentional addition of suffering is therefore an essential element of punishment. Emphasizes the inextricable coherence between punishment and guilt in the sense of culpability or blameworthiness. Only when a crime has been freely committed can it be repaid with punishment. The crime is the central point of punishment, not the offender. Only the wrongful and blameworthy act should be redressed through punishment, taking into consideration that the offender can act differently in the future in similar situations. Someone should be punished because a crime has been committed. Punishment should be imposed regardless of the goal/effects that can be pursued in terms of prevention. Punishment is in order to (cid:498)settle the score(cid:499). Depends on the seriousness of the criminal act that has been committed by the offender and the culpability that can be attributed to him for it.
