Many countries punish recidivist criminals – those who return to crime after a prison sentence – harder than the standard punishment for the crime itself. In California, for instance, under the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ legislation, criminals are sentenced to prison for 25 years to life after their third conviction.
The argument for such extreme punishment is that we can lock them up for a long time far away from the rest of us if the threat of prison doesn’t stop them from repeated crime.
But a number of philosophers now cast doubt on this argument and the idea of punishing criminals with previous records harder than first-time criminals.
In a new anthology, ‘Recidivist Punishments: The Philosopher’s View’, the philosophers debate whether it is ethically reasonable to give harsher sentences.
“Society lacks a philosophical-ethical aspect in this matter,” says the anthology’s editor, Jesper Ryberg, professor of ethics and philosophy of law at Roskilde University (RUC) in Denmark.
One of the authors in the anthology is Thomas Søbirk Petersen, associate professor in punishment and ethics at RUC. Although it is not necessarely his point of view, he writes that one could logically argue that criminals who are punished again should receive a milder punishment than the standard punishment for the crime for a first-time conviction.
He says that having served a jail sentence increases their motivation to commit further crime after their release.
“When criminals are released after serving their sentence, the opportunities available to them in the world they re-enter are far more restricted than before they went to jail,” says Petersen.
“Their record makes it more difficult for them to get a job, and rebuilding their lives and paying off debts such as legal fees without a job is more difficult.”
In other words, the criminals are in a worse position after their punishment than before, and the probability that they will return a life of crime is far higher than the probably that law-abiding people turn to crime.
Serial criminals could be punished less harshly
Amen to that! Punishment should be voluntary and good fun.
Free all non-violent prisonrs! End Indefinite Solitary Confinement!
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