In this article you will learn about the Objectives of Criminal Law.
Objectives of Criminal Law
The objectives of Criminal law are the deterrence of criminal behaviour, protection of persons and property, the punishment of criminal activity and rehabilitation of the criminal.
Deterrence of Criminal Behavior : A major key to the hoped-for reduction in criminal behaviour is that our criminal laws present a sufficient deterrent to antisocial behaviour. A “deterrent” is a danger, difficulty or other consideration that prevents or stops a person from acting. The presumption inherent in criminal law is that if we make the punishment severely harsh, persons who might do something criminal are prevented from doing so because they fear punishment. If people fear punishment, there will be a considerable reduction in criminal activity.
However, our Constitution states in Article 18 that, there shall be no cruel and unusual punishment. There would undoubtedly be fewer minor violations if our laws permitted the death sentence for even relatively minor offences. Is that fair, though? It seems like too high a price to pay to prevent more loaves of bread from being taken to sacrifice one's life for doing so. The challenge is determining the appropriate level of punishment that will prevent crime without going too far.
Protection of Persons and Property : Safety and a sense of security are the two most important things for the survival of any society. Safety of a society includes personal safety i.e. safety of life, safety of liberty and safety of property. To ensure safety there is the necessity of maintaining peace and order in the society. This is possible only by an effective penal system, which is strong enough to deal with the violators of the law and enable the people to live peacefully and without any fear of injury to their lives and property. Thus, the objective of criminal law is to protect the public by maintenance of law and order.
Another area of civil law known as "tort law" safeguards people and property. The distinction between criminal and tort law is that criminal law results in the loss of freedom by placing a person in jail or prison, whereas tort law results in monetary damages. The awarding of damages serves private interests. Punishing criminal behaviour serves the public interest. There would be very little need for criminal law if everyone respected the rights of others to their person or property.
Rehabilitation of the Criminal : Once found guilty, a criminal will start their prison sentence. But the criminal justice system in our country does not end there. Our government has created a number of programmes to instruct and train convicts in legal professions while they are incarcerated. There should consequently be no motivation to return to a life of crime after parole. According to the Criminal Code's Articles 190 to 210, sentences can occasionally be suspended, meaning they are not carried out. In these situations, the court monitors the parties' behaviour to make sure they've grown from their mistakes.
Punishment of Criminal Activity : Our rules recognise that there will undoubtedly be some illegal conduct in society since we will probably be unable to prevent all of it. As a result, we punish criminal action for the sake of punishment. Criminal law makes a person pay for their crimes by denying them their freedom for a while if they steal anything or harm someone else without a good reason.
This article on Objectives of Criminal Law is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.