Some people believe that there should be fixed punishments for each type of crime. Others, however, argue that the circumstances of an individual crime, and the motivation for committing it, should always be taken into account when deciding on the punishm

Have you ever thought about being a judge? There may be various situations in our daily lives in which our judgments are needed to be expressed. But is it really as simple as the situations we encounter every day when it comes to judging serious crimes? For a long time, it has been a controversial issue whether there must be fixed punishments for any kind of crime or the incentive is an influential factor that is crucial to be considered. I personally approve of the latter belief since there are a lot of crimes in which the criminal is not really guilty.

On the one hand, a group of people dogmatically believe the punishment for any crime ought to be fixed regardless of the crime’s motive. They state that if felons know there is severe punishment even for small crimes, they are hindered and will never attempt to commit a crime. Therefore, the violence and crime rates decline considerably and thus a better society we will have. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, the punishment for robbery is of one the robber’s hands being cut irrespective of what he has stolen, an apple or a car.

On the other hand, the other group of society argues that where the felony stems from must be investigated and the motivation should be taken into consideration when sentencing a criminal. As a justification, they cite that there are situations in which the crime has not been done deliberately or the culprit is not the real wrongdoer. In particular, in an involuntary homicide, the killer might be the victim since it might have a self-defense, or a robbery for feeding a family differs from robbing for profit. In this case, the judge is who can decide the best penalty considering every aspect and condition of crime perpetration.

On the whole, even though fixed punishments can be extremely beneficial in the decrease of crime rate and may culminate in a safer society, the justice system should be flexible enough towards certain felonies and consider the crime’s rationale and conditions for giving the most appropriate verdict.