CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1.1.2 SCOPE OF PUNISHMENT

Almost everyone would agree that hurting someone or subjecting them to pain is wrong. However, punishment, by definition, involves the infliction of pain. Does this make punishment wrong? Philosophers are divided on this issue. One group believes that inflicting pain as punishment is fundamentally different from inflicting pain on innocents, and therefore is not inherently wrong. Another group believes that punishment is a wrong that can be justified only if it results in a “greater good” (Murphy 1995).

The different approach to punishment can be explained thus;

The first philosophical approach (or rationale) is that punishment, strictly defined, is not evil. Retribution is a term that means balancing a wrong through punishment. While revenge is personal and not necessarily proportional to the victim’s injury, retribution is impersonal and balanced. Newman, although recognizing the difficulty of defining punishment, defines it in this way: “Punishment is a pain or other unpleasant consequence that results from an offense against a

rule and that is administered by others, who represent legal authority, to the offender who broke the rule” (Newman 1978, 6–7).