Should People Who Break the Law Be Punished?

Laws are designed to be followed, and therefore, people who break the law should be punished. Punishments are a form of retribution for those who disobey the law of a particular society. In Canada, they can come in different forms such as jail time, rehabilitation, fines, etc. It is necessary for all citizens to follow laws because they are the moral standards that are set to reflect social norms. Because of the importance of laws, if they are broken by a citizen, he or she must face the corresponding penalties in order for a country to progress in a positive manner.

Laws are formed to reflect the ethical principles of society. Hence, it is important to enforce penalties on law breakers to better protect the basic goods of the greater people. For example, a corrupted politician should be arrested for using public funds on person goods since it is infringing upon the rights of the taxpayers. Hence, penalties to a reasonable level of severity must be implemented on law breakers to ensure the protection among society.

In addition, Punishments for law breakers are necessary because it serves as a deterrence for others. By punishing those who break the law, it discourages others from doing the same thing. A high school student might think twice about theft after seeing his friend serve 300 hours of community service for it. By punishing law breakers, it sets an example to others that disobeying the law is unacceptable. Therefore, people who break to law should be punished to prevent others from doing the same.

Punishments are an important part of the legal system. Many punishments such as jail time and rehabilitation works as a segregation to protect society from danger. It is only right for a serial killer to be locked up so he/she can no longer be of harm to anyone else in society.

Although the necessity to enforce punishments on law breakers is a vital element to consider, it is also important to note that not all punishments are the same. The laws and penalties should always correspond with each other. An indictable offence should have a more serious penalty than an offence of less severity. Different punishments are also applied to different laws depending on what is considered socially acceptable. To apply life sentence for theft under $5,000 would simply be considered excessive and inhumane. Since all laws and punishments are relative to one another, then no laws will correspond to a punishment that