General objectives of Criminal Laws

According to Wechsler, “the purpose of penal law is to express the social condemnation of forbidden high court criminal lawyers in bangalore conduct, buttressed by sanctions calculated to prevent it”. The general objectives of criminal laws include-

Protecting individuals and property
For the survival of any society, a feeling of security and safety is one of the key aspects, which is why maintaining peace and order in the community becomes essential. Safety in society includes personal safety (also referred to as safety of life and liberty) and the safety of property. In order to ensure safety, it is important that an efficacious panel system that is capable enough to deal with the violators of the law has been created. Doing so will also enable the general public to live in peace and with no fear of injury to their life, limb, or property, for that matter. Therefore, the primary objective of criminal law is to safeguard the public by maintaining law and order in society.

Prevention/deterrence of criminal behaviour
One of the major reasons for deduction in criminal behaviour is the criminal laws demonstrating a sufficient deterrence in anti-social behaviour. Deterrence can be referred to as a danger, difficulty, or situation that prevents a person from committing a wrong.

The presumption inherent in criminal law is that individuals would be reluctant to commit a crime or may not even commit a crime considering the brutality of the penalty thus inflicted upon the commission of such an act. Consequently, if enough people fear punishment, the rate of criminal activity will decline.

Punishing a criminal act
It is a common understanding that all the crimes committed in society cannot be penalised and not every criminal activity can be averted from happening. Thus, an inescapable level of crime will unquestionably exist in society. Hence, criminal activities are penalised for the sake of punishment. So, say, a criminal steals something without prior payment or inflicts an injury on an individual without proper cause for doing so, the criminal law will make the offender or perpetrator pay for it by depriving him/her of his/her liberty for a time period.

Rehabilitating a criminal
Once a criminal is punished, they will serve their sentence behind bars. However, this is not where the criminal justice system ends; our government has created several programmes to enlighten and train criminals in legitimate occupations and practical skills like weaving, stitching, construction activities, etc. Hence, upon being released, they do not have a reason to return to a life of crime and also have the means to earn their livelihood.