Punishment is ... The Federal Service for the Execution of Sentences. The purposes of punishment. The system of punishment

In our time, retribution ceased to play the role of the basis of justice, as it was, for example, in the Middle Ages. It was then accepted to return for sins, to chop off hands and commit other acts of self-mutilation in the name of retribution. Today the idea of preventive supervision, rehabilitation measures of influence is more popular. Although, of course, it would be wrong to talk only about the educational function of criminal law. Agree, some maniacs and murderers are corrected even before the decision of the guilty verdict. In this case, according to some liberal-minded criminalists, there is no reason to put them behind bars for the rest of their lives. However, the fair Themis in the overwhelming majority of cases selects the penalty. However, in some services conditional punishment is applied.

Crime and punishment

If we talk about punishment in criminal law, then, as a rule, prisons come to mind. However, this is too lightweight a statement. So, by crime, a socially dangerous act is understood in modern criminal law, the commission of which entails certain legal consequences on the part of the state as an institution for settling the life of a society. In the most general sense, a criminal act is a specific form of delinquent (antisocial) behavior of a person. The main sign of a crime is the person's guilty attitude towards him, that is, the awareness of the wrongfulness or the possibility of such awareness.

Modern criminal law punishment is usually considered in several aspects. Administrative responsibility provides for a maximum of short arrest. But in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation the punishment is a separate chapter. And this is not accidental, since behind the dry figures of statistics lie broken human destinies.

Punishment is ...

Since ancient times, humanity understood that it is worthwhile to expose the guilty to negative influence for misconduct. The very concept of punishment was officially introduced several centuries ago. However, it existed from the beginning of the emergence of states as institutions of enforcement of orders and laws. First of all, punishments are a kind of measure applied to the guilty person for the commission of a certain act. As it was said above, earlier it was an act of retribution, now more and more often it is used for educational purposes. Rehabilitation measures in this case imply not only a direct impact on the person who committed the crime, but also demonstration to others that a certain reaction will necessarily be followed by an adequate response from the state.

In addition, some scholars consider the measures of responsibility as the basis for the formation of a strictly defined model of behavior both for a particular individual and for society as a whole. Therefore, serving a sentence involves the commission of a criminal act. This is the basis of the entire science of criminal law.

It is noteworthy that in modern science, positive and negative discrimination is distinguished. The first kind is the impact on the individual. For example, a person who commits robbery is imprisoned for a certain period of time. An example of a negative punishment is the elimination of some factor. For example, a child who has lost his mind is deprived of sweet.

Nevertheless, the use of punishment is still a forced measure. In criminal law, only serious offenses appear, for which it is simply necessary to hold them accountable.

It is noteworthy that in this industry the punishment serves, first of all, for the implementation of the measure of criminal liability. In this case, we are talking about achieving one of the most important goals of criminal law, namely, ensuring the safety of people's lives in society. However, this is only one of the immediate tasks of the system.

Penitentiary Service

It is an independent federal body that belongs to the executive branch. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Justice. This is really an independent structure. The central apparatus of the Federal Service for the Execution of Penalties has eighteen departments that exercise their powers in all the main areas of service.

The Ministry of Justice performs a set of enforcement functions, as well as supervises and supervises the execution with regard to convicted criminal sentences and so on. It is this federal body that is responsible for bringing convictions to life, it is created for the implementation of criminal liability measures.

The purposes of punishment

Today, the measures of responsibility are established by the judges everywhere. One should not think that the purpose of punishment is exclusively punishment for the committed socially dangerous act. Still, it would be too simple and too straightforward. In fact, the whole system of punishment is built on certain principles, among which there is no place for simple retribution. Everything is much more complicated. The task of criminal law, among other things, is the adequate execution of punishment.

If we are talking about punishment or retribution, several centuries ago it was established in practice that this is a rather primitive concept. Moreover, the payoff itself does not consolidate society, does not affect its normal development, does not eradicate crime as a whole, and does not correct people who have committed an illegal act in their lives. Just the exact opposite: the punitive system hardens the attacker even more, embittering him, the person is losing all ties with the society, all hope for some kind of rehabilitation or new life is lost. Agree, this is a dead-end path that leads to the formation of large criminal groups, the dissociation of the people and the increase in the number of unlawful acts in general. The principle of talion, which presupposes retribution for the committed crime, is morally obsolete and must be completely eradicated. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the criminal law has long ago departed from this position, some of its elements continue to exist.

Still, today the main goal of criminal responsibility is to correct the convicted person. Of course, the penal system is now sufficiently focused on the implementation of this task, but in practice, not all criminals start a new life. A considerable part of the former prisoners still return "on a slippery path," although, perhaps, it is not the whole set of measures for the realization of criminal responsibility that is to blame, but the program of socialization of yesterday's criminals.

And some of the offenders are still being corrected. That is why we can consider the goal of rehabilitation achieved. There are people who will never return to the path of crime, and the exemption from punishment will be perceived as a chance to start a radically new life.

Special prevention

The goals of criminal law are enormous. The essence of punishment is, above all, the protection of foundations. There is also a special prevention task for today. It consists in preventing the commission of crimes. Achieved with the help of isolation of a citizen who previously committed a socially dangerous act. That is, in fact, the individual will not be able to harm the society once again, he is fenced off from everyone.

In addition to isolation, the death penalty, life imprisonment and other measures are also used in some countries. In certain states, the use of castration is common for people who have committed sex crimes.

But not all types of special prevention are self-mutilation or social exclusion. This includes the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in any activity. Thus, the society gets rid of unskilled executors, who treat negligently or negligently the realization of their duties.

Agree, for today the role of punishment as a measure of retaliation / guns is minimal, but sometimes it still persists. For example, in the case of the death penalty, it is simply obvious. Although some countries have introduced a special moratorium on this measure. However, in most cases, they did this in order to minimize the consequences of a possible judicial error, from which no society and no legal system is insured.

General prevention

On this purpose, criminal law does not end. Also, the task of punishment is the so-called general prevention. It is achieved by intimidation. A potential attacker who knows that in case of disclosure of a crime he faces maximum deprivation of liberty or even the death penalty, he is simply afraid to commit wrongful acts. This is a fairly effective measure, since a large part of the latent offenders do not get on the "slippery path", logically preferring to remain still at large. This goal is achieved through effective methods of capturing criminals and detecting an act. If there is complete lawlessness in the society and legal life of the state, there can be no question of any humility or fear of condemnation.

In addition, the purpose of the general prevention is the timely and high-quality information of the society about the crimes committed, as well as those penalties that were applied to the villains. It should be established that the state carries out a high-quality information policy that creates a negative image of the offender, expresses an irreconcilable and sharply negative attitude towards the committed misconduct.

However, contrary to the opinion of supporters of tougher penalties, excessively intolerant and really cruel, unjust methods only professionalize crime. In addition, the society develops the image of an unfortunate villain who is unlawfully and unjustly punished. Thus, when approaching the goal of the general prevention, certain restrictions must be observed. Only in this case, its application will actually yield positive results. That is why it is suggested to pay attention not to the severity of punishment, but its inevitability. That is, the fewer persons who manage to avoid responsibility, the higher the effectiveness of the so-called general prevention, respectively.

Classification of punishments

To date, there are several of the most common classifications of criminal liability measures. And in this execution of punishment reveals its essence. So, identify the main measures, as well as additional measures. In certain legal systems there are subtleties and nuances. However, usually the main ones are those that can be used exclusively by themselves and do not apply, for example, to enhance the specific effect of other penalties. The additional responsibility itself does not apply. It is used only in conjunction with the basic measures to enhance their effect.

In addition, there are general and special types of implementation of responsibility. The difference between them is that special types of punishment can only be applied to certain segments of the population or social structures.

There are also different ways of realizing responsibility: property, which includes fines or confiscation of property; Punishments related to deprivation of liberty, as well as to the labor activity of the individual. As you can see, there are a lot of them.

It is noteworthy that already in the process of condemnation this or that sanction can be replaced by other types, the measure may decrease, conditional punishment is permissible. Of course, all this happens solely by a court decision. Also, a criminal can be "granted" exemption from liability.

Types of punishment

Since ancient times, people have tried to punish their abusers. Responsibility for offenders of order came up with a variety of different. Many of them have not reached the present times, but some penalties have been preserved and consolidated not only in everyday life, but also in legal documents. Of course, the most famous such legal document is the Criminal Code.

The most mild punishment is considered to be a fine. And its execution in this case does not present any problem. Roughly speaking, a person is punished for his offense by the ruble.

A fine is one of the most ancient types of responsibility. It is used in the modern criminal law of the overwhelming majority of states and, as a rule, is assigned for offenses of relatively small severity (in particular, economic). A fine can also be used as an additional measure to the basic punishment. In principle, this often happens, because its independent application gives a dubious effect. Thus, the collection of a fine from the very offender in many cases is actually impossible because of the lack of sufficient funds to pay off the penalty. It is also noteworthy that the imposition of a monetary penalty in itself may well entail the commission of a new crime, because an intruder needs to get some money somewhere to pay off the fine.

Modern measures of punishment also provide for forced labor, when convicts are forced to perform compulsory labor. Decades ago, penal law was widely used in penal law, but today they refused to do so. According to modern studies, forced labor has a fairly good effect on the correction of the convict. In general, the work has a beneficial effect on his future employment. A person accustoms himself to organized activity and is brought up in the conditions of everyday life.

Punishment is imprisonment

However, not all measures to implement criminal responsibility are so mild. Today, as a rule, people are imprisoned for serious crimes. This forced placement of a convicted person in a certain special institution, where his isolation from the society is subsequently carried out, control over his behavior. Among other things, other methods of educational influence are applied to a person. Based on the decision of the court, a measure may be used in the form of a conditional sentence. This happens in practice often.

Today, imprisonment is imposed for a number of serious property crimes, acts against sexual freedom and life. That is, it is appointed for those misconduct that seriously harms public relations.

Today, there are various types of deprivation of liberty, which are classified according to the length of the sentence, the places where the sentence is served, and the conditions of detention.

Restrict the freedom of the offender, as a rule, only in exceptional cases. It should be noted that these processes are completely controlled by the Federal Penitentiary Service, which was discussed above.

Measures that no longer apply

Today, not only practice, but also some other types of criminal coercion are not used in practice. In particular, a few decades ago, reference or expulsion was widely used. By the way, there were worse measures. The reference is the removal of the offender from his place of residence with mandatory settlement in a certain locality on an ongoing basis. Exile is a ban on living in a certain place (city or state) on pain of death or prison.

Among other things, to date, corporal punishment is not at all applied, at least throughout the civilized world. These measures represent one of the most ancient methods of implementing criminal responsibility. Corporal punishment consisted in causing the offender physical pain or injury. The use of this measure is prohibited by numerous international conventions.

Let's sum up the results

Of course, now the society is not at this stage of its development, when the application of various types of punishment is inexpedient. Still, until the crime can not be eradicated. True, the educational goals of criminal responsibility are somehow achieved. Ideally, mankind should do without any punishment at all. However, these prospects are rather vague.

As can be seen from all of the above, the punishment of the Criminal Code provides for different, depending on the severity of the act committed, as well as on many other factors on which the measure of responsibility depends. Moreover, the types of responsibility do not change, however, corrections are often made in time. Thereby, there is an increasing individualization of response measures. And this is already aimed at social justice, when the goals of punishment are achieved, and criminals are regularly re-educated.

Thus, in our time, the responsibility in the field of criminal law is primarily intended to protect the society, limit and protect people from criminals who are only facing a difficult path of rehabilitation and correction.

In the future, legislators and performers should be concerned about the problem of educating the individual through punishment in each specific case. Such an approach will lead to a significant decrease in the number of crimes committed. Moreover, yesterday's convicts will have a completely different view of the reality surrounding them, realize the perniciousness and illegality of what they have done, reconsider their views, judgments and start a truly new life. However, this approach is based primarily on working with criminals, usually working a huge, complex ... Mankind in the end must come to the fact that the punishment of some people just do not fix it, it will not do anything. Work on projects in this area should be built on the judgments and writings of numerous scientists, on sociological research and statistical data. Also in the future it is worth to depart from punitive approaches, which still have a place to be. Of course, there are certain advances in this direction even now, but they are still not enough to completely modernize the existing system of appointing and serving a sentence.

In any case, at the present stage, painstaking work should be carried out aimed at studying crime and its further eradication. Then the institution of punishments will completely become obsolete in the future, and any need will disappear in the designation of measures of criminal responsibility. Already at the legislative level, certain amendments can be adopted aimed at socialization and effective rehabilitation of criminals. This will be the first step towards eradicating latent crime and preventing further committing crimes by persons previously convicted. It is more common practice to release from punishment. Only then can we talk about a really healthy society, where each individual has his value, where the former criminal is important, and he is aspired to maximally rehabilitate in the future to prevent more misconduct on his part. In general, it is worthwhile to strive to build a society where there will be no punishment.