Critical Analysis Of The Theories Of Punishment

Urvi Bandari, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

ABSTRACT

The society we live in is dynamic in nature, hence to keep up with society, it is necessary to bring changes in the legislations and rules governing us. The recourse to penalty by governments to uphold social structure is justified according to a number of different theoretical frameworks. There are two overarching concepts that can be applied to conceptions of punitive action: utilitarianism and retaliatory. Under the pragmatic standpoint of retribution, the goal of inflicting pain on criminals is to avert, or "deter people," future action. This is the goal of putting punishment. The viewpoint of revenge maintains that criminals deserve to be punished for their actions because they have brought that upon themselves. The goal of law, in the hedonistic school of thinking, should be to improve people's quality of life as a whole so that society might experience a higher level of happiness. Because contentment and happiness are mutually exclusive states, society ought to strive for the lowest feasible rates of both criminality and punishments. In the utilitarianism are very well conscious that civilizations devoid of crimes do not currently existing, but they make every effort to impose the lowest level of punishment required to avoid criminal activity. Utilitarianism is a theory that advocates for the maximisation of happiness subject to the constraints of reality. In this paper, the researcher is dealing with the various theories of punishment and how they continue to exist in society and keep on changing. The researcher is also focused on criminal psychology and what provokes them to commit such crimes. Hence it is necessary to formulate punishments in accordance with the law and needs of the society. Lastly, the researcher has also suggested certain ideas which could be incorporated to determine the applicability and efficiency of certain theories in certain situations.

Keywords: Indian Penal Code; Crime; Punishment; Theories; Offences; Society.