Subject: Do You Think Canada has an Effective Criminal Law?

Do we deal with criminals strictly?

Words: 375

The short and sweet answer to this is No. However since this is an essay for an

English class I will have to explain my position in greater detail.

 I believe that the criminal law in Canada is ineffective in deterring criminals from re-offending. My belief is that for a punishment to truly be effective it needs to remove the reward the criminal gets by committing the crime. Therefore if the crime is fiscally motivated, all the criminals property should be confiscated by the government.

Another belief of mine is that a criminals punishment should be worse than the worst job a law abiding citizen willingly does to earn a living. There are law abiding citizens who work 2 and sometimes 3 jobs to earn a living for themselves and their family. Why should a criminal who has broken the law have it easier than the person who follows the law.

 Some people would argue that the loss of freedom is the real punishment for the criminal. But I will counter that many of us have also lost our freedom to some degree at least in a practical sense. Using the example of the law abiding citizen who works 2-3 jobs to earn a living, how much freedom does that person have?

 That person is paying a mortgage, bills, feeding and clothing themselves and their family. Sure they have the option to quit and walk away from their bills and mortgage, but lets be honest and agree that the option to just walk away from it all is more theoretical than practical and you cannot totally walk away from those things as the law will legally hold you responsible for your debts.

 Some of those same people would argue that the mortgage and bills were that persons choice and brought it upon themselves and I would respond by saying that they are entirely correct and on the same token the criminal who commits a crime is also responsible for the choices that he/she made.

 In closing I believe that the justice system needs to make criminals accept the full responsability for the choices people make and enforce appropriate sentences for those choices. In the end that is what it really comes down to Choices.