NCJ Number
80647
Date Published
1980
Length
25 pages
Annotation
'Right' and 'Wrong' are colored by an individual's or society's perspective, moral principles, and needs. Society has a need to distinguish right from wrong, lawful from unlawful, and a need to punish what is unlawful. However, trying to determine the precise 'fit' punishment for an unlawful act is difficult.
Abstract
In society, moral right stems from individuals' need to better their situation or at least keep their situation from deteriorating. The individual right is restricted and influenced by several factors, including the availability of resources, knowledge, and skill; ability to cooperate with others to achieve goals; tendency to sympathize with others and experience setbacks in bettering one's own situation to help others, etc. Society has a responsibility to try to equally distribute good and bad among its population. Norms for conferring good and bad and distributing them adhere to some set criteria, such as need, ability, merit, equivalence. The system for conferment and distribution is almost innately unfair and must be constantly modified in an effort to make the system more fair. However, since different ethical viewpoints and value judgments come into play in determining what is right and wrong, a perfect solution is impossible. In determining appropriate punishments for certain crimes, value judgments again must be relied on. The danger in setting specific sentences for a crime or developing rigid sentencing grids is that all the influencers affecting the offender's guilt and mental state at the time of the crime cannot be taken into account. Assigning punishment to crime types requires a balancing of the severity of the punishment and the purpose of the sentence with the severity of the crime itself, plus the extenuating circumstances of the crime. For instance, what was the offenders' motivation? What did the offender do after the criminal act? A sentencing grid that can allow for all these influencers would be very difficult to construct. To not allow for these influencers would be unjust.