Applied Ethics - Crime and Punishment

• Bentham: "But all punishment is mischief: all punishment in itself is evil. Upon the principle of utility, if it ought at all to be admitted, it ought only to be admitted as far as it promises to exclude some greater evil"
• Utilitarians justify need for laws/punishment due to deterrence (internal/external), protection and reform
  CRITICISMS
• Justifies preventative punishment if it produces greatest happiness
• Justifies excessive punishment for minor crimes

Mill: "Justice implies something which it is not only right to do and not wrong to do, nut which some individual person can claim from us as his moral right"

• Justice should protect rights; Mill: "When we call something a person's right, we mean he has a valid claim on society to protect him in his possession of it", the reason being Mill: "general utility"
• These rules grant security and increase general pleasure; punishment must relate to justice and should protect rights; therefore those who violate rights must be punished
• Punishment must be proportionate to crime since there's no inherent good in punishment but only as a means to an end that produces greatest happiness

• Universalibility formulation: our actions recommend maxims for all humanity; when someone commits a crime, they declare how they want to be treated i.e. a murderer should undergo capital punishment (proportionate punishment is justified since it respects criminal as rational being)
• Humanity formulation: all rational beings must be treated as ends including criminals so they cannot be treated as means, therefore utilitarian justifications like deterrence/protections are unacceptable since they're means to an end (less crime)
• Kant was a libertarian and argued against reform since it disrespects autonomy; a criminal has chosen to break laws and must be held responsible

• Aristotle: punishment rectifies injustice/compensates the wrong done when a criminal acts unjustly who gains an advantage i.e. stolen goods at the expense of someone else; therefore criminal must return unfair gains and losses suffered
  CRITICISM
• Not all crimes results in advantages i.e. possession of harmful drugs