Should Criminals be Punished?

In my last blog, I talked about how we don't really have a free will. I would recommend you to check that blog before reading this one.


If Free Will doesn't exist then doesn't that mean that every criminal is himself a victim of factors that he doesn't have any control over? Wouldn't that mean that no criminal can be held morally accountable for his/her crimes and hence does not deserve to be punished?


I believe that no person should be held morally accountable for his/her crimes but at the same time, I also believe that although a criminal is himself a victim of circumstances (meaning that his/her decision of committing crime was influenced by every external and internal influence he/she got in his lifetime which are not under his/her control) he/she should still be punished (legally).


Are criminals bad?


Let's imagine a case about a guy accused of raping and murdering 10 women and 2 children in a week. How do you feel about him? Are you angry at him? Do you want him to be punished? 

After being arrested, it was found that the man was a successful businessman with a family he loved a lot. His neighbours and family members were interviewed where they all insisted that he can't do such a heinous crime, he was a very honest and a good human. After a few days of his arrest he was diagnosed with a brain tumour which the doctor suggested was the cause of his sudden violent and criminal behaviour (it's scientifically evident that brain tumours can change human behaviour drastically). Do you still think he should be punished? If no, then why? Why did the fact that his desire (of raping and killing) was influenced by a physical matter (tumour) change your views and emotions about him? Even if he was not diagnosed with tumour, the source of his decision would still be a physical matter, his brain structure. The way his brain is wired influences his desires just like a tumour does and the way his brain is wired depends on his genes and environment he lived in (because of brain's neuroplasticity) which cannot be controlled by him, just like the tumour. So you should have the same feeling of sympathy for him even if he is not diagnosed with tumour. 

So to conclude, no criminal is any different from us, we all are controlled by factors we have no control over.


Should criminals be punished?


If you believe (as I do) that any criminal should not be held morally accountable for his/her crimes, then you might also consider that punishing criminals (legally) should be avoided. But we can't do that because of two reasons:-


  1. The criminal committed the crime because he was influenced by external and internal factors to have a desire to commit the specific crime, and that desire could still prevail after the crime is committed, which means he still holds the potential to commit a crime again. So for the sake of other people's peace, he should be jailed to deprive him of any more chances to commit a crime.


  1. If we stopped the judiciary system then every person will experience an external influence because of the fact that he won't be jailed for his crime and this will eliminate the factor of FEAR (of jail) before taking any decision so the desire (to live freely) which was stopping him from fulfilling another desire of his (committing a crime) is no more at risk. He can now have both the desires fulfilled, which will result in him committing more crimes. And this single factor will influence millions and billions of people and crime rate will rise to its utmost peak.


So the conclusion is that even though a criminal cannot be held morally accountable for his/her crimes, he/she should still be punished legally to prevent further crimes both by him/her and other people in the society.

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