A Criminologist's Dairy-63

A Criminologist’s Dairy-63

Account Criminology and Criminal Ju...

SCALE to award PUNISHMENTS

What is the scale to award punishment? Bentham and Beccaaria suggested that the severity of punishments should be proportionate to the gravity of the offence committed. Perhaps, this idea had its origin in St Thomas Aquinas, a catholic theologian who proposed a similar scale for the award of punishment to the sinners after their death and it was done during the 13^th century or so. Accordingly, those who committed mortal sins were entitled to get ‘HELL’ after death and those who committed venial sins would receive purgatory after their death. The days which must be spent in purgatory for purification of the soul after death depended on the gravity of the venial sin committed. The classification of crimes as cognizable and non-cognizable under the Indian law had its roots in the classification of sins by St. Thomas Aquinas. Non-cognizable crimes are of less serious than the cognizable crimes like the venial sins and mortal sins in Catholic theology.

When Bentham and Beccaria suggested the scale basing on the hedonistic calculus, the objective of punishment was not even ‘incapacitating’ as seen in the Indian Penal Code-1860.When Macaulay framed the Indian Penal Code, he prescribed imprisonment for almost all crimes and the imprisonment was punitive in nature. Of course, it changed into peno-correctional and later to correctional and still later to correction, reformation, rehabilitation, resocialization and reintegration to society back. The latest approach is ‘to the development of human personality in an upright way in the right direction’ The questions that arise now are-

(1) Are the Thomist and Benthan-Beccaaria scales relevant today to award punishments?

(2) What is the criterion by virtue of which the gravity of crime is decided by the Judge?

(3) What is the purpose of punishment? If the objective is to develop human personality in an upright way in the right direction, then how must a Judge decide the severity of punishment?

(4) If the crime doer has not developed his personality in an upright way in the right direction during his jail sentence, what is the liability of the Judge awarding the punishment? What is the responsibility of the prison staff for the failure of their mission?

(5) Are the Judges and the jail staff competent enough and qualitatively up to date to award the punishment and to attain the objective of the punishment? If not, what are the factors responsible for the failure?

Questions are many and the answers are nil. In fact, there exists no scientific criterion or scale to award punishments to crime doers. There exists no diagnosis of the crime and the crime-doer. And what is done today is a sort of ADHOCHISM or AVANAVANISM (i.e., arbitrarily deciding the punishment as the Judge feels or likes) in administration of justice. It needs discussion today extensively.