ABSTRACT
Criminal punishments have been around as long as there have been organized communities. Humans have been incredibly creative in inventing ways to inflict pain. At various times in history, we have employed punishments that included crucifying, drawing and quartering, boiling in oil, whipping, penal colonies, enslavement, forfeiture of all property, stocks and pillories, banishment, and many others. Historically, the goal of punishment was simply
retribution , which basically means inflicting punishment proportional to the harm caused. However, deterrence has also been a goal, including specific deterrence (what is done to an individual to deter him or her from future offending) and general deterrence (what is done to an individual to discourage others from future offending). Incapacitation was added as a goal with the development of places of confinement. Incapacitation simply means to render incapable, and in corrections, it means to make the offender incapable of committing crime. Also, in more recent eras, we have added the goal of rehabilitation , which means to change the individual in terms of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Thus, the four goals of corrections or punishment are:
■ Retribution ■ Deterrence ■ Incapacitation ■ Reform/rehabilitation
The emphasis on punishment or reform seems to occur in cycles. Today, we are in a punitive era that began in the 1980s and rehabilitation is less emphasized as a goal of the system.
