“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply
less inclined to behave in a particular way; at best he learns how to avoid
punishment.”[1]
“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of
deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the
punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its
reappearance is more likely than its initial
emergence could ever have been.[2]
“Punishment is not
for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal[3]
Just
yesterday, it was reported in the news that a financer of the dreaded book haram
sect was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his involvement with the terrorist group.the question on many minds
is whether 10 years imprisonment is a fair enough punishment for an offence of that
magnitude.
Section
13 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 provides inter alia;
A person who knowingly-
(a) Solicits, receives,
provides or possesses monetary or other property or;
(b) enters into or
becomes involved in an arrangement as a result of which
money or other property
is made available, or is to be made available, for
the purpose of terrorism
or for a proscribed organization, commits an
offence under this Act
and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for
a maximum term of 10 years.
Terrorism (Prevention)(Amendment) Act, 2013
provides that;
13(1) Any person or entity who, in or
outside of Nigeria-
(a) Solicits, acquires, provides, collects, receives, possesses or
makes available funds, property or other services by any means to-
(i)
Terrorists, or
(ii)
Terrorist groups, directly or
indirectly with the intention or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to
believe that such funds, property will be used in full or in part in order to
commit an offence under this Act or in breach of the provisions of this Act,
(b) Possesses funds intending that it will be used or knowing that
it will be used, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, for the purpose
of committing or facilitating the commission of a terrorist act by terrorist or
terrorist groups, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction
to imprisonment for life imprisonment.
There
are three main theories of punishment which are; retribution, reformation and
deterrence.
A. RETRIBUTION: this is referred to as the theory of just
deserts or fair deserts. Retribution is defined as severe punishment for something
seriously wrong that someone has done.[4]This is simply punishing a
person found guilty of an offence because he deserves it. This is usually
achieved by considering the circumstances of the crime, the accused’s
responsibility for the crime and deciding what punishment will be most
deserving. This is more like vengeance. A kind of punishment thateverybody or
most people will agree that it is fair and just; thus the name just or fair
desert.
B. REFORMATION: the
act of improving or changing somebody or something.[5] This theory thinks of
punishment as something that would transform the offender and make him a better
person thus preventing him from committing the offence again. For instance
sending the person to a corrective facility or appealing to the person’s psyche
such that he understands what he did was wrong and actually regret it.
C. DETERRENCE: to deter is to make somebody decide not to do
something or continue doing something especially by making them understand the
difficulties and unpleasant results of their actions.[6] The deterrence theory
comes in two forms, the individual deterrence and the general deterrence. While
the individual deterrence targets the offender to make sure he doesn’t repeat
the offence, the general deterrence discourages both the offender and the
general public from committing the same offence. The punishment is such that a
person planning to commit the same offence becomes scared and doesn’t go ahead
because of the fate of the person already caught in the offence.
I
close with the words of Thomas Szasz, “if he who breaks the law is not
punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This and this alone is why law breakers
ought to be punished; to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law
abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence;
it can only be the maintenance of legal order.”
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