Crime and Punishment
This section looks at how Christians treat criminals. People punish criminals for several different reasons:
Deterrent - to stop other people doing it, or stop the criminal reoffending
Retribution - to make the criminal suffer, as payback for what they did
Protection - to take the criminal off the streets and protect society
Rehabilitation - to make the criminal a better person; to teach the criminal that what they did was wrong and help them stop committing crimes
Some punishments, such as the death penalty, have no rehabilitative element. There are also arguments that this doesn't really work as a deterrent - that people aren't thinking about long-term consequences when they kill someone. Many people see capital punishment as retribution - an eye for an eye - and nothing more. Does that make capital punishment wrong?
