Conflicting goals of criminal justice system
A Globe and Mail story yesterday (Province to target gun crime, A1) featured comments by Mark Pugash, a "police spokesman."
Mr. Pugash said Chief Fantino has raised concerns about the criminal justice system. "Eighty-four per cent of the people we arrest for violent crime have previous criminal records. . . The system is not deterring or rehabilitating people, and so you get these revolving-door criminals."
He's right. The Canadian criminal justice system doesn't reliably deter or rehabilitate criminals. How can it when so many conflicting goals have been set out in our legislation on sentencing?
Judges are given multiple, conflicting goals. They include rehabilitiation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution.
A deterring sentence is rarely conducive to rehabilitation. A rehabilitative sentence will not satisfy those who want to incapacitate offenders by removing them from society because an integral part of rehabilitation is reintegrating them into society.
But people think they can achieve all of these goals during sentencing. In trying to do so, they don't achieve any of them very well.
Mr. Pugash said Chief Fantino has raised concerns about the criminal justice system. "Eighty-four per cent of the people we arrest for violent crime have previous criminal records. . . The system is not deterring or rehabilitating people, and so you get these revolving-door criminals."
He's right. The Canadian criminal justice system doesn't reliably deter or rehabilitate criminals. How can it when so many conflicting goals have been set out in our legislation on sentencing?
Judges are given multiple, conflicting goals. They include rehabilitiation, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution.
A deterring sentence is rarely conducive to rehabilitation. A rehabilitative sentence will not satisfy those who want to incapacitate offenders by removing them from society because an integral part of rehabilitation is reintegrating them into society.
But people think they can achieve all of these goals during sentencing. In trying to do so, they don't achieve any of them very well.
