|
ENLIGHTENMENT
BY JEREMY BENTHAM:
The Rationale of Punishment.
Book I
General Principles
Chapter III
Of the Ends of Punishment
When any act has been committed which is followed, or threatens to be
followed, by such effects as a provident legislator would be anxious to prevent, two wishes naturally and immediately suggest
themselves to his mind: first, to obviate the danger of the like mischief in future: secondly, to compensate the mischief
that has already been done.
The mischief likely to ensue from acts of the like kind may arise from either of two
sources,either the conduct of the party himself who has been the author of the mischief already done, or the conduct of such
other persons as may have adequate motives and sufficient opportunities to do the like.
Hence the prevention of
offenses divides itself into two branches: Particular prevention, which applies to the delinquent himself; and general prevention,
which is applicable to all the members of the community without exception.
Pain and pleasure are the great springs
of human action. When a man perceives or supposes pain to be the consequence of an act, he is acted upon in such a manner
as tends, with a certain force, to withdraw him, as it were, from the commission of that act. If the apparent magnitude, or
rather value of that pain be greater than the apparent magnitude or value of the pleasure or good he expects to be the consequence
of the act, he will be absolutely prevented from performing it. The mischief which would have ensued from the act, if performed,
will also by that means be prevented.
With respect to a given individual, the recurrence of an offense may be provided
against in three ways:
By taking from him the physical power of offending.
By taking away the desire of offending.
By making him afraid of offending.
In the first case, the individual can no more commit the offense; in the
second, he no longer desires to commit it; in the third, he may still wish to commit it, but he no longer dares to do it.
In the first case, there is a physical incapacity; in the second, a moral reformation; in the third, there is intimidation
or terror of the law.
General prevention is effected by the denunciation of punishment, and by its application,
which, according to the common expression, serves for an example. The punishment suffered by the offender presents to every
one an example of what he himself will have to suffer if he is guilty of the same offense..
General prevention ought
to be the chief end of punishment, as it is its real justification. If we could consider an offence which has been committed
as an isolated fact, the like of which would never recur, punishment would be useless. It would be only adding one evil to
another. But when we consider that an unpunished crime leaves the path of crime open not only to the same delinquent, but
also to all those who may have the same motives and opportunities for entering upon it, we perceive that the punishment inflicted
on the individual becomes a source of security to all. That punishment, which, considered in itself, appeared base and repugnant
to all generous sentiments, is elevated to the first rank of benefits, when it is regarded not as an act of wrath or of vengeance
against a guilty or unfortunate individual who has given way to mischievous inclinations, but as an indispensable sacrifice
to the common safety.
With respect to any particular delinquent, we have seen that punishment has three objects,
incapacitation, reformation, and intimidation. If the crime he has committed is of a kind calculated to inspire great alarm,
as manifesting a very mischievous disposition, it becomes necessary to take from him the power of committing it again. But
if the crime, being less dangerous, only justifies a transient punishment, and it is possible for the delinquent to return
to society, it is proper that the punishment should possess qualities calculated to reform or to intimidate him.
After
having provided for the prevention of future crimes, reparation still remains to be made, as far as possible, for those which
are passed, by bestowing a compensation on the party injured; that is to say, bestowing a good equal to the evil suffered.
This compensation, founded upon reasons which have been elsewhere developed, does not at first view appear to belong
to the subject of punishments, because it concerns another individual than the delinquent. But these two ends have a real
connexion. There are punishments which have the double effect of affording compensation to the party injured, and of inflicting
a proportionate suffering on the delinquent; so that these two ends may be effected by a single operation. This is, in certain
cases, the peculiar advantage of pecuniary punishments.
|
