What Are the Specific Aims and Purposes of the Criminal Law?

What are the specific aims and purposes of the criminal law?

The aims and purposes of the criminal law is to punish those who commit crimes, as well as prevent those who already have, or have not, from committing crimes in the future. This is a pretty basic meaning when you really think about it, and it makes sense to employ such tactics when you look at history and see the evolution of behavior as the world grows. The thought of being arrested makes people think twice about their actions, or at least it should, which will prevent laws from being broken in the future. Criminal law kills two birds with one stone through its intimidation factor of its punishments.

To what extent does the criminal law control behavior?

Criminal law can only make it so far, and that has been made very apparent through history. I see myself as a law-abiding citizen. I make the choices I do partly because I would feel wrong committing certain crimes, but I also keep in mind the fact that if I break the law I will get in trouble. The troubling truth of the matter is, some people really don’t care what will happen to them, or they just think that there is no way that they could get caught.

When someone doesn’t care about the consequences of the law, then it loses almost all of its power in a preventative state. Sure the law can punish the person after wards, but it is to the point that some people do not mind what happens during those punishments. They pay their time, then go on their merry way and find themselves doing the exact same things that put them back there in the first place.

Criminal law at this point does just about all it possibly can do. With the way the world is today, it would be impossible to do much more than the law itself currently does. Obviously with all of the tragedies and controversies swirling around currently with certain areas