Punishment Essay essays

Punishment Essay essays The basis of criminal punishment that is used by the court systems today came from the foundation that was laid down by the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. The foundation of punishment is to have the punishment be harsh enough to deter a repeat offense, and also to deter other individuals from the population from performing the same offense. However, when comparing the punishments of ancient times to the forms of punishments in the modern era, similarities will tend to dissipate. Ancient punishment was designed to give the public a view of what happens when a certain offense is committed, while the modern punishments are mainly to isolate the given offender from society in a reform atmosphere. In this paper the forms of punishment in ancient Greece and Rome will be compared and contrasted, and the forms of ancient punishments will be compared to how the modern world deals with its criminal offenders, and which one was more successful. The foundation of law was started in the ancient provinces of Greece and Rome. The philosophers Plato, from Greece, Cicero and Tacitus from Rome were the revolutionaries of the ancient laws. The main purpose of Platos thoughts were to find the purpose of punishment, distinguish how to achieve its purpose, and to make the punishment go along with the morals of the given society. Plato believed that the criminal derived pleasure from the resulting punishments of the crimes committed. Due to the beneficial experience of punishment to the criminal, the punishment worsened with every offense and if the convicted shows no reform from the non-lethal forms of punishment, that person would be sentenced to death. All punishment should have the purpose of deterring a repeat offense and should be harsh enough to discourage others from committing the same offense. In the early Roman era, Cicero felt strongly about the effectiveness of Platos ideals and beliefs of punishments. Cic ...