{"id":389,"date":"2012-10-18T14:50:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T18:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=389"},"modified":"2023-08-12T14:37:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T18:37:27","slug":"50-apply-the-purposes-of-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"50. Apply the Purposes of Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n


The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 9: At Least You Tried
Attempt pg 13: Attempt is a Completed Crime<\/p>\n

Well, let’s look at the purposes of punishment again:<\/p>\n

Rehabilitation?<\/span>\u00a0Flint’s trying to commit a crime? He’s gone beyond mere planning, and has taken steps to carry out the crime? Sounds\u00a0dangerous.<\/strong> Maybe he needs\u00a0correction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deterrence?<\/span> We don’t want people actively trying to commit crimes\u2014what if they succeed? And we certainly don’t want Flint to try to kill you\u00a0again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Removal?<\/span> Dude, Flint is\u00a0dangerous.<\/strong> He needs to be locked away. The mere fact that he hasn’t succeeded in killing you\u00a0yet<\/strong> doesn’t have anything to do with it.<\/p>\n

Retribution<\/span> and\u00a0Retaliation<\/span>, however, don’t really apply. Flint hasn’t done any\u00a0harm<\/strong> yet, so there’s nothing to react to.<\/p>\n

Average Joe talking head<\/em><\/p>\n

AVERAGE JOE<\/em><\/p>\n

No harm, no foul?<\/p>\n

And this is where we see how big a role\u00a0retribution<\/strong> plays as a purpose of punishment. Because although attempted crimes do get punished, they don’t get punished as\u00a0severely<\/strong> as completed ones.<\/p>\n

In principle, there’s no difference between someone who attempts a murder and someone who succeeds in killing. Both are\u00a0equally<\/span> bad, pose the\u00a0same<\/span> dangers, and have the\u00a0same<\/span> criminal intent. The only difference is when they got caught\u2014a matter of pure luck<\/strong> that has nothing to do with their “badness.”<\/p>\n

But there\u00a0is<\/strong> a difference in\u00a0punishment<\/strong> (in most jurisdictions). And the only reason is because there’s nothing to\u00a0avenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>Transcript<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,37,1],"tags":[25,5,4,16,24,18],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-law","category-culpability","category-uncategorized","tag-attempt","tag-crime","tag-criminal-law","tag-culpability","tag-guilt","tag-liability"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t