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🎥 YouTube Lecture Notes — Punitive & Reformative Treatment of Criminals

Source

YouTube playlist (reference): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQe8ZUZBIxt-X1qRVwO8XUck3IeCuUVZE

Notes extracted from the CSS Criminology YouTube lecture series (Video: Criminal Justice System — Punitive and Reformative Treatment of Criminals), matched to this chapter.

Lecture Notes — Punitive and Reformative Treatment of Criminals

(Extracted/translated from a Hindi/Urdu-language lecture.)

FPSC framing point: candidates should understand corporal punishment, imprisonment, and rehabilitation of criminals.

Three theories of punishment (as introduced in the lecture):

  1. Retributive theory (also called Punitive theory) — inflict as much harm on the criminal as the victim suffered ("revenge")
  2. Preventive theory (also called Deterrent theory) — give a punishment in society severe enough that other people are prevented from committing that crime — instilling fear/deterrence in society
  3. Reformative theory — rehabilitate the criminal and restore the victim back into society

Punitive Treatment (Retributive theory) — concepts covered:

  • Punishment should match the harm caused (a proportionality logic)
  • Concepts under this theory: corporal punishment, capital punishment, or imprisonment; also victim restoration and rehabilitation of the criminal/society are contrasted against it
  • Characteristics of punitive justice: (a) punishment is believed to stop the criminal act itself; (b) the criminal is believed to only realize/take responsibility for their mistake through punishment; (c) inflicting pain is believed to deter future criminal behaviour; (d) the logic of "an eye for an eye" — a similar reaction to the action committed
  • Punitive justice seeks to remove people from society and incarcerate them in penal institutions — there is no room for forgiveness in this model
  • Historical/theoretical note: the lecture frames punitive treatment as an outdated concept, associated with the Classical School of Thought (which believed swift, certain punishment should exist); modern criminology instead believes in reformative treatment

Two forms of punishment under the punitive model: Corporal/Capital, or Imprisonment

Corporal punishment:

  • Physical punishment given to prisoners — historically applied to slaves/prisoners as physical torture
  • Includes: flogging (beating with a rod), branding, and mutilation/amputation — defined in the lecture as "the intentional destroying, removing, or severely damaging of a limb or other part of a person (or animal)"
  • Historically most often demanded/applied for rape convictions; the lecture notes that some voices from a conflict perspective and some "classical school" feminists have repeatedly called for this punishment specifically for rape
  • Human rights organisations (post-Enlightenment) consider such punishments inhumane; the 20th century saw many developed countries eliminate corporal punishment almost entirely; 21st-century corporal punishment (where it still exists) is comparatively much more restrained/"fair" than in the 20th century
  • Currently, only 33 countries still administer corporal punishment, including some British-legacy territories (Botswana, Malaysia, Singapore, Tanzania) and several countries following Islamic legal systems (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Iran, Brunei, Sudan)
  • In some Islamic-law countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Iran), physical penalties such as amputation (cutting off a hand) are still applied for certain offences

Capital punishment (death penalty):

  • Government-sanctioned execution of a person, imposed as a "sentence" by the state
  • Terminology: being sentenced to death = "death sentence"; carrying out the sentence = "execution"; a prisoner awaiting execution = "on death row" / "he has been condemned"
  • Crimes eligible for the death penalty are jurisdiction-dependent, called capital crimes/capital offences/capital felonies — typically the most brutal crimes shocking to society (e.g. rape, murder)
  • 56 countries currently retain and use capital punishment; 106 countries have completely abolished the death penalty for any crime; 8 countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes but retain it for special circumstances (e.g. treason, terrorism)
  • Despite most countries (106) having abolished it, 60% of the world's population still lives in a country that retains the death penalty — Pakistan is named as one of the countries where the death penalty is still practised
  • Controversies noted: human-rights organisations' objections, concerns over wrongful executions, and differing views across racial/ethnic, social-class, and religious lines on whether capital punishment is inhumane

Reformative Treatment — concepts covered:

  • Probation and parole (flagged as covered in full detail in a separate, earlier lecture — "Lecture 7")
  • Vocational training — described as functioning similarly to parole
  • Therapy and counselling — often delivered through private industry within prisons, media, NGOs, and employment agencies

Summary — two schools of thought in the treatment of criminals:

  • Punitive treatment: elimination/execution or severe incapacitation of the offender, as a deterrent
  • Reformative treatment: rehabilitation of the criminal through probation, parole, vocational training, and the involvement of employment agencies