Question

How can the different objectives of the penal system – retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation – be fulfilled, in connection with white collar crime, and can they be reconciled?

Answer 1

Incapacitation positively prevents the sentenced criminal from committing future offenses by putting the person into a jail. By this way the criminal is removed from the society and is imprisoned to block it's ability to commit any crime in future.

Deterrence prevents white collar crime by frightening the defendant or the public. There are two types of deterrence - specific and general deterrence. Specific deterrence is applicable to the individual defendant. When an individual defendant is punished by the government then is theoretically less likely to commit another crime due to the fear of another similar or worse punishment. General deterrence is applicable to the public at large. When the public learns from individual defendant’s punishment, then they are theoretically less likely to commit a crime due to the fear of the punishment the defendant experienced

Rehabilitation prevents future white collar crime by altering the behaviour of defendant’s Examples of rehabilitation is vocational and educational programs, treatment center placement, and counselling.

In the above discussed objectives of the penal system – incapacitation, and rehabilitation can be combined; however it will be difficult to merge retribution and deterrence. Incarcerated prisoners can be rehabilitated in prison before they leave however is also applicable when the criminals are low crime offenders. It is difficult to apply deterrence as these are is seen as a danger to society because are sentenced to maximum-security prison