Purpose of Criminal Law

Crime, as the saying goes, does not pay. Criminal law is the body of regulations that are designed to facilitate social order in a given society, and if any member within that society transgresses the law they have a civic responsibility to own up to the consequences of their unlawful action. The aim of this judicial process is to administer what is called "retributive justice" and/or "compensatory justice" through the execution of what is known as criminal law. But what is the purpose of criminal law? 

Retributive justice and compensatory justice are the means by which the government carries out criminal punishment for social crimes. Concepts such as "retribution," "just compensation" and "criminal punishment" within the context ofwhat the purpose of criminal law is tend to be problematic and even controversial when actual cases are evaluated by the proper judicial body (from the local district court up to the apex of the court system which is the supreme court) and the appropriate criminal sanctions are deliberated over and dispensed. Is life imprisonment (or reclusion perpetua) for example, a just form of punishment for a crime such as murder or is it capital punishment? If an "eye" is given in place of an "eye" that has been taken (or a "tooth" for another for that same matter), Mahatma Gandhi cautions us that everyone in society might just end up blind (or toothless).

This is the main reason why it is imperative to clarify, express in clear and distinct terms, and keep in mindwhat the purpose of criminal law is to prevent prejudice affecting a judicial ruling or verdict carried out by the judicial agency designated to apply the appropriate form of criminal sanction (e.g. incarceration, probation, fines etc.) to specific criminal cases. The fundamental aims of criminal justice are correction (thus a prison is technically referred to as a "correctional facility") and deterrence. When a member in society defies the law they essentially victimize the rest of its members. It’s not uncommon to hear statements in court room dramas seen on TV that go by the line "The People versus [name of the defendant]." No one, in addition, is above the law. Lady Justice, the iconic statue representing the principle of justice, for instance, is seen carrying scales and wearing a blindfold over her eyes.

Many are against the idea that criminal punishment is purely for the purpose of retaliation to a wrong doer. This scenario, according to critics, runs the risk of being no different from vengeful action that are common in cases of vendettas or ordinary citizens (so-called "vigilantes") taking the law in their own hands, so to speak, to "right a wrong." The objective of criminal sanction in the case of imprisonment, for example, may include rehabilitation and deterrence as much as the aim to retribute. This provides a utilitarian justification for criminal punishment that both prevents other members in society from committing/replicating crimes punishable by law and criminals from repeating their unlawful actions, apart from possibly rehabilitating prisoners that have a light prison sentence (reclusion temporal) and eventually releasing them back into mainstream society as law-abiding citizens once again. Utilitarianism, after all, is the doctrine that promotes "the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people."