opinion essay about crime and punishment

Crime and punishment IELTS model essay with vocabulary

Our band nine sample essays give you the opportunity to learn from successful essays that show off the best structure, vocabulary and grammar. This IELTS essay on crime and punishment explores the advantages and disadvantages of harsh punishment for criminals.

band Nine Sample Essay

In some countries, crimes are punished harshly. what are some advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

Several nations have opted to implement a system of strict penalties, such as long jail sentences and execution, for crimes. In this essay, I will explore the advantage that this is a good deterrent with the disadvantage that this harms rehabilitation .

Punitive measures can help deter future crime. If people can see that crimes will be punished harshly, they are far less likely to want to commit a crime . Because people consider risk versus reward before acting, making crime as risky as possible by increasing punishment can stop criminals. Conversely, when countries have light punishments for crimes like shoplifting , people in those countries might feel like it is worth the risk to do these crimes.

However, these strong punishments also increase recidivism by failing to rehabilitate people. One of the main purposes of sending people to prison is to prevent them from committing crimes when they leave; however, making prisons and other punishments too strict works against this purpose. When criminals have a heavily punitive experience, they lose self-confidence and become distrustful of authority , meaning they are more likely to be involved in crime when they leave prison. Alternatively, if prisoners have access to training and support, such as drug rehabilitation programs and anger management classes, they are far more likely to rejoin society in a productive way.

In conclusion, the correct punishment for crimes is a complex issue. On the one hand, strong measures deter crime; on the other hand, the same measures make it more likely for prisoners to reoffend .

crime and punishment vocabulary

Although crime and punishment is a common topic in the IELTS exam, there, thankfully, is not too much vocabulary you need to know for it. Let’s take a look at some of the high level vocabulary in this answer to kick start your learning.

opinion essay about crime and punishment

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Crime & Punishment Essay Titles

IELTS Essay Questions for the Topic of Crime & Punishment. All essay questions below are reported by IELTS candidates and seem to have been repeated over the years. Regardless of the years the questions were reported, you could get any question below in your test. You should, therefore, prepare ideas for all questions given below. This topic is more likely to appear in the Academic test than the GT writing test. However, all candidates should prepare for all topics to be safe.

Crime & Punishment Essay Questions for IELTS Writing Task 2

The crime rate nowadays is decreasing compared to the past due to advance technology which can prevent and solve crime. Do you agree or disagree? (Reported 2017, 2021 Academic Test)

Many criminals commit further crimes as soon as they released from prison. What do you think are the causes of this? What possible solutions can you suggest? (Reported 2015, 2017, 2022 Academic Test)

It is often thought that the increase in juvenile crime can be attributed to violence in the media. Do you agree that this is the main cause of juvenile crime? What solutions can you offer to deal with this situation? (common question)

In some societies, the number of crimes committed by teenagers is growing. Some people think that regardless of age, teenagers who commit major crimes should receive adult punishment. To what extent do you agree? (2020, 2023)

Some countries are struggling with an increase in the rate of crime. Many people think that having more police on the streets is the only way to reduce crime. To what extent do you agree? (2018, 2020)

Some people think that women should not be allowed to work in the police force. Do you agree or disagree?

Many crimes are often related to the consumption of alcohol. Some people think that the best way to reduce the crime rate is to ban alcohol. Do you think this is an effective measure against crime? What other solutions can you suggest?

Some people think certain prisoners should be made to do unpaid community work instead of being put behind bars. To what extent do you agree? (Reported 2017, 2020, GT Test)

Many people believe that having a fixed punishment for all crimes is more efficient. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a fixed punishment? (common question)

Some people think that the government should be responsible for crime prevention, while others believe that it is the responsibility of the individual to protect themselves. Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

The death penalty is the best way to control and reduce serious crime. To what extent do you agree? (2018, 2020)

While it is sometimes thought that prison is the best place for criminals, others believe that there are better ways to deal with them. What is your opinion? (common question – this is often reworded with a focus on the best ways to deal with criminals)

Crime rate, in most countries, is often higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Why do you think that is? What can be done to reduce the crime rate?

Some people think that poverty is the reason behind most crimes. Do you agree or disagree?

Internet crime is increasing rapidly as more and more people are using the internet to make financial transactions. What can be done to tackle this problem ?

Some people think that the parents of children who commit crime should also receive a punishment. Do you agree or disagree? (2020)

Reported essay questions are from students who have taken their IELTS test. That means questions may have appeared more frequently than have been reported. These questions may vary slightly in wording and focus from the original question. Also note that these questions could also appear in IELTS speaking part 3 which is another good reason to prepare all topics thoroughly.

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IELTS Writing Task 2 Topic: Many offenders commit more crimes after serving the first punishment

Updated On Aug 08, 2024

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Get access to the IELTS Writing Task 2 band 9 sample answer of 'Many Offenders Commit More Crimes After Serving The First Punishment’ here!

Band 8 sample essay, band 9 sample essay, other essays related to crime and punishment.

IELTS Writing Prediction Questions for 2024

In IELTS Writing Task 2 , students are asked to write a formal essay of at least 250 words, in 4-5 paragraphs based on the given writing task 2 essay topics. The task is similar for both Academic and General Training with regards to the type of questions and the scoring, but the topics given for General Training will be slightly easier than Academic.

Given below is an IELTS problem and solution essay with sample answers that will help you to practise and get a good score.

Before that, take a look at IELTS Writing Task 2 Preparation Tips !

Many offenders commit more crimes after serving the first punishment. Why is this happening, and what measures can be taken to tackle this problem?

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Do you have an essay on this topic? Please post it in the comments section. One of our IELTS trainers will evaluate your essay from an examiner’s point of view and reply to the comment. This service is completely FREE of cost.

Cause/ Solution Essay

Introduction

Introduce the essay topic and paraphrase it by giving a proper preface. Then, state the essay’s intent in two subsequent paragraphs, i.e., the causes and solutions for the essay topic.

Paragraph 1: A large proportion of criminals leave prison only to reoffend, owing to a lack of rehabilitation and reskilling opportunities in prison

Paragraph 2: These criminals can take effective measures to keep engaged in activities that will help them acquire new skills.

State the solution

Most criminals tend to commit crimes again, once they are released from jail. This is mainly because of the lack of rehabilitation in prisons and also the difficulty they face in finding employment. There are a lot of solutions to overcome this situation. In this essay, we will explain why the criminals commit the same crime again and the reasons to overcome this.

The main reason for the repetition of crimes is the lack of reskilling options in jails. Since they are unable to find the right employment, they resort to unfair means to earn their daily bread. Another reason is that there aren’t strict laws to keep them under control.

Some effective measures are imposing strict punishments and improving their skills like craft making, fashion designing, catering and so on. They will be engaged in work once they are out of prison and become self-sustained.

To sum up, the government must closely monitor the criminals even after they are out of prison and ensure that there is a reduction in crime rate so that we can make the world a better place to live in.

Several criminals are likely to commit other offences after serving their initial term, owing to their incapacity to maintain economic stability and difficulty finding suitable employment. However, there are several options for dealing with this scenario, such as providing financial assistance and instilling the necessary skills. This essay will look at why criminals commit the same crimes over and over again and how to avoid them.

To begin with, most first-time convicts commit crimes after serving their first sentence due to the lack of employment options and opportunities to retrain and master new skills to make a living. Moreover, since society does not accept the convicts as respectable people anymore, they join hands with their criminal friends and perpetuate the same crimes, such as pickpocketing or robbing, to make ends meet and avail basic necessities. As a result, the financial hardships of the perpetrators prompt them to recommit the crimes regardless of the repercussions.

There are some viable measures to rehabiliate habitual criminals. The government can provide financial assistance to them after they complete their sentence as this will help them stabilize their economic status and make a living for themselves. The government can also ensure that criminals have the opportunity to retrain vital skills while in prison, as this will help them find stable work after their sentence is over and will improve their reintegration into society and financial development.

To sum up, the convicts recommit the crimes owing to a lack of financial help, job opportunities, and rehabilitation. Still, crime rates would drop considerably if the government implemented the above-mentioned measures and kept a close eye on first-time offenders once set free.

Rehabilitation

Meaning: the action of restoring someone to a healthy or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, addiction, or illness Eg: The older woman was sent to a rehabilitation centre.

Meaning: succeed in dealing with (a problem or difficulty) Eg: It was difficult for John to overcome the loss of his pet.

Meaning: teach (a person, especially an unemployed person) new skills Eg: The University started a reskilling program for the students.

Meaning: the action of repeating something that has already been said or written. Eg: The staff was fired due to her repetition of mistakes.

Earn (one’s) daily bread

Meaning: to do work of any kind for a living Eg: The man earned his daily bread by working at a construction site.

Self-sustaining

Meaning: able to continue in a healthy state without outside assistance Eg: Kay was self-sustaining from his business.

Meaning: observe and check the progress or quality of (something) over a period of time Eg: The teacher monitored the students during the exam.

Meaning: make certain that (something) will occur or be the case Eg: My mother ensured that I scored good marks.

Meaning: turn to and adopt (a course of action, especially an extreme or undesirable one) so as to resolve a difficult situation. Eg: Jill had to resort to a loan from the bank.

Meaning: force (an unwelcome decision or ruling) on someone Eg: The government imposed strict travel restrictions.

There are also other related essays that you can make use of while practicing for IELTS Writing task 2 essays. The list is given below:

Juvenile Criminal

Some people say that when children under 18 are committing a crime they should be punished, while others believe they should be educated. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give your own opinion.
Studies show that criminals get a low level of education. Some people believe that the best way to reduce crime is by educating people in prison so they can get a job after leaving prison. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
In some countries, a high proportion of criminal acts are committed by teenagers. Why has this happened? What can be done to deal with this?
Some people who have been in prison become good citizens later. Some people think that having these people to give a talk to school students is the best way to tell them about the dangers of committing a crime. Do you agree or disagree?

Practice IELTS Writing Task 2 based on Essay types

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Soon after graduating with a Master’s in Literature from Southern Arkansas University, she joined an institute as an English language trainer. She has had innumerous student interactions and has produced a couple of research papers on English language teaching. She soon found that non-native speakers struggled to meet the English language requirements set by foreign universities. It was when she decided to jump ship into IELTS training. From then on, she has been mentoring IELTS aspirants. She joined IELTSMaterial about a year ago, and her contributions have been exceptional. Her essay ideas and vocabulary have taken many students to a band 9.

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IELTS Essays About Crime

Jump to: Opinion Essays , Discussion Essays , Discussion and Opinion Essays , or Situation Essays

Opinion Essays

The death penalty should be available as a punishment for serious crimes.

To what extent do you agree?

Certain groups of society believe that the most efficient way of lowering crime rates is to be able to implement the death penalty for crimes which are the most serious. Others believe that this is not the case and makes no difference. Personally, I am completely against the use of the death penalty and this essay shall explore some of the reasons for this view point.

Firstly, a major drawback of the death penalty is that it is irreversible and could be handed out incorrectly. Although forensic scientists are becoming more and more advanced there is still a chance that mistakes are made and innocent people are executed. A classic case of this was Colin Ross, who in 1922 was executed but later evidence proved that he was actually innocent and in fact he was later pardoned in 2008.

In addition to the above arguments is the fact that some people are of the opinion that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society. To kill another human being for whatever reason should be considered a very low immoral act which demonstrates a lack of appreciation for the precious gift of life which we have all been given. Furthermore, most major religions of the world express the need for forgiveness. Executing inmates on death row is as far from this particular teaching as you could get.

Overall, it can be said that innocent people can be executed wrongfully and that a truly developed society should be able to find a more productive way of dealing with serious criminals. I therefore remain firmly of the stand point that the death penalty is totally unethical and ineffective

Internet crime is increasing rapidly as growing numbers of people purchase goods over the internet. What can be done to tackle this problem?

Following a significant increase in the number of financial transactions taking place online in recent years, internet crime levels have also increased dramatically. I believe this is due to the fact that people often think that they are safe when they are sat behind a computer and that they cannot be caught easily. This essay shall explore some ways of reducing these types of crimes.

One of the most effective ways of reducing online crime levels might be to make every internet user log-in with their passport number or national identification card number. Most countries assign at least one of these numbers to each citizen so this would make it very easy to track down who had done what crime and when. If potential criminals were made to identify themselves online in this manner when they first log on then it may cause them to think twice about conducting illegal activities.

Another method which may also aid online crime reduction would be to regulate the websites that the general public was allowed to access. This would mean that rather than the public being able to visit any type of websites they want to, they would only be allowed to access websites which were secure and not linked in any way to criminal activity. For example, certain web-sites such as Alphabaymarket.com sell fire-arms and drugs and are infamous for being places where illegal activities and transactions take place. Eliminating access to them could therefore aid in crime level reduction.

Overall, making people identify themselves online and restricting access to certain web-sites could help in online crime reduction. Personally, I feel the government need to take responsibility for implementing some or all of the above ideas.

Some people believe that poverty is the cause of most crimes.

Do you agree or disagree?

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While some people believe prison is the best place for criminals others think that there are better ways to handle them.

What is your opinion?

Violence in society increases when more violence is shown on television.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In some communities the teenage crime rate is growing. Some people believe that regardless of age, teenagers who commit major crimes should receive punishment that is the same as an adults.

Some people believe certain prisoners should be forced to do community work with no pay rather than being simply kept inside a prison cell.

The crime rate nowadays is lower than in the past because of the increased use of advanced technology which can prevent and solve crimes.

Some countries are experiencing an increase in the rates of crime. Many people believe that getting more police walking the streets is the best way to prevent crime from occurring.

Discussion Essays

Many people think that having one single fixed punishment for all crimes would be more effective.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a fixed punishment?

Discussion and Opinion Essays

Some people think that giving harsher prison sentences and punishments is the best way to reduce crime rates, others however believe there are alternative methods that need to be explored.

Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to hand out longer prison sentences, whilst other people think that there are better methods of doing reducing crime.

Discuss both views and give your opinion .

Some people think that the government should be responsible for reducing crime, where as others believe individuals should take responsibility for their own safety and security.

Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

Many criminals after being released go on to commit further crimes as soon as they are allowed out of prison.

What do you think are the causes of this and what possible solutions can you suggest?

Situation Essays

In some poorer areas of large cities people are too afraid to leave their houses at night time due to a fear of crime.

What are the causes of crime in those areas and what can be done to tackle those problems?

In many large cities around the world youth crime is growing at a fast rate.

What are the reasons for this and suggest some solutions.

Crime rates in most countries are often higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

What do you think are the reasons for this and what can be done to lower the crime rates?

It is thought that the increase in youth crime rates can be linked to an increase in violence shown in the media.

Do you agree that this is the main factor causing juvenile crime and what ideas can you offer to deal with the situation?

Many crimes are often linked to the consumption of alcohol. Some people think that banning alcohol sales would dramatically reduce crime.

Do you think it is an effective measure against crime and what other solutions can you suggest?

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Crime and Punishment [IELTS Topics]

Posted by David S. Wills | Nov 20, 2020 | IELTS Tips | 0

If you have practised for IELTS writing, then you have more than likely encountered the IELTS topic of crime and punishment . I am not talking about the book by Russian novelist , Fyodor Dostoevsky. Instead, I mean the general topic that covers issues relating to crime, criminals, police, the law, and methods of punishing lawbreakers.

This is a pretty common topic in IELTS writing and also in the speaking test, so today I would like to show you some useful vocabulary and also to run through some crime and punishment IELTS essays so that you can better understand this topic.

IELTS Vocabulary for Crime and Punishment

If you want to prepare for the topic of crime and punishment, then you should learn some vocabulary to help you discuss it with ease. A great way to start is to read some news articles about crime. You can try searching your favourite English-language news source. I recommend the BBC , but any high-quality news outlet is fine. You might also find it useful to search Wikipedia for crime-related topics, such as “ capital punishment .” These will invariably contain many useful words. For example:

wikipedia article on capital punishment with highlighted vocabulary

Of course, I usually stress that you should not just learn words in isolation. Try to learn groups of words that commonly go together or longer phrases that might help you. For example, you could learn some adjectives and nouns that go together:

law-abiding citizens
hardened criminals

It is also worth noting that the word “criminal” can be a noun or an adjective:

criminal behaviour (adjective)
an unrepentant criminal (noun)

Notice that I am mixing adjectives and nouns to provide more accurate and also colourful language. This is a good way to improve your writing skills – but of course it only helps when the language is used accurately.

Here is a video that I recently made covering the topic of crime and punishment as it relates to IELTS. This includes some useful vocabulary to talk about the court system:

attorney vs solicitor
capital punishment and its synonyms
jail vs prison

More Vocabulary: Types of Crime and Criminals

If you want to talk about crime, then it would be useful to know the name of various crimes and also the criminal associated with them. Here’s a list of crime words I made for you:

Crime	Criminal
Arson	Arsonist
Blackmail	Blackmailer
Burglary	Burglar
Extorsion	Extortionist
Fraud	Fraud
Hacking	Hacker
Murder	Murderer
Rape	Rapist
Robbery	Robber
Scam	Scammer
Stalking	Stalker
Terrorism	Terrorist
Theft	Thief

IELTS Speaking: Crime and Punishment

The topic of crime and punishment could be considered quite controversial in some ways. Think about the issues that arise: imprisonment, violence, reforming criminals. These are serious issues that cannot be summed up in short sentences without further justification. As such, this is not a common topic for part one of the speaking test.

Likewise, you probably would not be asked to talk about this for part two. Can you imagine if the cue card said, “Describe a criminal you know?” 🤨 That would not really be appropriate. It has the potential to make people feel embarrassed or ashamed or even to completely draw a blank.

Therefore, crime and punishment mostly arises in part three of the IELTS speaking test. This is where you are asked about bigger issues that require more thought and explanation. These can be viewed as similar to the sorts of question you see in task two of the writing exam.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 Questions: Crime

Here are some example questions and answers from part three of the speaking test:

Q: Do you think that young criminals should be sent to prison for serious crimes?

A: No, I do not think that it is right to send young offenders to prison. In fact, that seems to be the worst way to deal with them. In any advanced society, juvenile delinquents should be dealt with through education, with the intention of reforming them into law-abiding adults. Sending them to jail or prison simply puts them in contact with other criminals and makes them more likely to commit further offenses.

Q: What do you think makes people commit acts of violent crime?

A: Well, crimes have different motivations. Some are committed out of desperation and others are crimes of passion. In other words, they are spur-of-the-moment offenses that had no forethought. Then there are other crimes that are definitely pre-meditated. These are the worst ones and probably the hardest to pin down in terms of motivation. In any case, it is hard to say what makes people do these things, except that it depends entirely upon the individual case.

Q: Do you think that video games encourage young people to commit crimes?

A: No, absolutely not, and the scientific consensus nowadays appears to back that stance. The idea that video games encourage people to commit crimes is laughable. If this was true, we would have to go and censor TV and books, and even change how we report the news. People who are going to commit crimes do so for a variety of reasons, but to suggest that they do it to imitate a game is quite absurd. If someone really did claim that their crime was inspired by a computer game, they would probably be lying or else they had underlying mental issues that made them particularly susceptible to outside influences.

Crime and Punishment IELTS Essay Topics

This topic is much more common in the writing exam than other parts because it requires the expression of complex ideas. As such, you will see many IELTS writing task 2 questions about crime and punishment.

Common sub-topics include:

young people and crime
capital punishment
reasons for criminal behaviour
reforming offenders

Crime and Punishment IELTS Essay

Here is a quite representative task 2 essay question:

Some people think that offenders should be put in prison. Others, however, believe that providing offenders with education and training is more effective than putting them in prison. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Sample Band 9 Answer

For thousands of years, people have discussed the different ways of dealing with criminals, and even in the modern era there is a great degree of disagreement on this subject. Some believe that prison is an effective measure, but others argue that education and training would be better. This essay will look at both sides of the argument and then argue in favour of a balanced approach.

For centuries, prisons have been used as a way of both punishing criminals and keeping them away from law-abiding citizens. Although it works as a deterrent and also as a practical means of keeping society safe, it is not without its controversy. For one thing, prisons are notorious hubs of gang activity, and impressionable young lawbreakers can easily be moulded into hardened criminals during a short stint behind bars. Moreover, prisons are violent places where young offenders can be raped, beaten, or even killed during their sentence, and when they are released they carry with them the stigma of their incarceration. This means that they will struggle to return to normal society and, for this reason, recidivism rates can be quite high in some places. Thus, although prisons are an effective means of punishing people and keeping society safe, they are not without substantial problems.

On the other hand, educating and training criminals is controversial because people tend to think of it as overly lenient. Many law-abiding citizens believe that those who break the law should be punished harshly or else there is little reason to adhere to the rules. However, this approach should not be seen as rewarding criminals but rather rehabilitating people who were pushed to extreme actions by their unfortunate circumstances. Statistically, most prison inmates come from backgrounds of poverty and abuse, so giving them a helping hand can be more beneficial than punishing them and then hoping that they do not return to a life of crime.

In conclusion, this is an extremely complex issue that requires serious scrutiny, but it appears as though prison should be reserved only for violent and habitual offenders while the majority of petty criminals should be dealt with through education and training.

Notes on the Answer

There was a lot of great vocabulary in this answer for the purposes of a descriptive and thoughtful essay:

impressionable young lawbreakers
a short stint behind bars
the stigma of their incarceration
recidivism rates
rehabilitating
requires serious scrutiny
petty criminals

Task 1 – Crime-related Essays

For IELTS writing task 1, it is also possible that you could have to describe data about crime. This is harder to predict because it really could be about almost anything, but here is an example of a line graph about various types of criminal activity:

The line graph shows changes in crime rates over a ten-year period in the city centre of Newport. Three types of crimes are listed, two of which ended the period at roughly similar levels to where they began, and one experienced a major drop.

In 2003, which was the beginning of the recorded period, burglary was the most common type of crime in Newport, with just under 3,500 cases reported. This rose slightly the following year, before entering into a long downward trend, reaching a low of about 1,200 in 2008. After this, the number of burglaries reported fluctuated until 2012.

The number of car thefts was about 2,800 in 2003, and ended the period slightly lower, at 2,700. During the decade-long period, it fluctuated, reaching low points in 2006 and 2008. Car theft was the second most common type of crime in 2003, but the fall in burglaries meant that from 2008 onwards, they were the most common crime in Newport.

Robberies were the least common crime and followed a somewhat similar trend to that of car thefts, starting and ending the period with around 700 incidents. It fluctuated only slightly during the ten-year period.

This essay originally appeared here .

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

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The Lockdown Lessons of “Crime and Punishment”

At the end of “ Crime and Punishment ,” which was completed in 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s hero, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, has a dream that so closely reflects the roilings of our own pandemic one almost shrinks from its power. Here’s part of it, in Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s rendering :

He had dreamed that the whole world was doomed to fall victim to some terrible, as yet unknown and unseen pestilence spreading to Europe from the depths of Asia. Everyone was to perish, except for certain, very few, chosen ones. Some new trichinae had appeared, microscopic creatures that lodged themselves in men’s bodies. But these creatures were spirits, endowed with reason and will. Those who received them into themselves immediately became possessed and mad. But never, never had people considered themselves so intelligent and unshakeable in the truth as did these infected ones. Never had they thought their judgments, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions and beliefs more unshakeable. Entire settlements, entire cities and nations would be infected and go mad. Everyone became anxious, and no one understood anyone else; each thought the truth was contained in himself alone, and suffered looking at others, beat his breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know whom or how to judge, could not agree on what to regard as evil, what as good. They did not know whom to accuse, whom to vindicate.

What is this passage doing there, a few pages before the novel concludes? Recall what leads up to the dream. Raskolnikov, a twenty-three-year-old law-school dropout, tall, blond, and “remarkably good-looking,” lives in a “cupboard” in St. Petersburg and depends on handouts from his mother and sister. Looking for money, he plans and executes the murder of an old pawnbroker, a “useless, nasty, pernicious louse,” as he calls her; and then kills her half sister, who stumbles onto the murder scene. He makes off with the pawnbroker’s purse, but then, mysteriously, buries it in an empty courtyard.

Is it really money that he wants? His motives are less mercenary than, one might say, experimental. He has apparently been reading Hegel on “world-historical” figures. Great men like Napoleon, he believes, commit all sorts of crimes in their ascent to power; once they have attained eminence, they are hailed as benefactors to mankind, and no one holds them responsible for their early deeds. Could he be such a man?

In the days after the crime, Raskolnikov vacillates between exhilaration and fits of guilty behavior, spilling his soul in dreams and hallucinations. Under the guidance of an eighteen-year-old prostitute, Sonya, who embodies what Raskolnikov sees as “ insatiable compassion,” he eventually confesses the crime, and is sent to a prison in Siberia. As she waits for him in a nearby village, he falls ill and has that feverish dream.

For us, the dream poses a teasing question: Is it just a morbidly eccentric summation of the novel, or is it also an unwitting prediction of where we are going? Dostoyevsky was a genius obsessed with social disintegration in his own time. He wrote so forcefully that Raskolnikov’s dream, encountered now, expresses what we are, and what we fear we might become.

I first read “Crime and Punishment” in 1961, when I was a freshman at Columbia University, as part of Literature Humanities, or Lit Hum, as everyone calls it, a required yearlong course for entering students. In small classes, the freshmen traverse such formidable peaks as Homer’s and Virgil’s epics, Greek tragedies, scriptural texts, Augustine and Dante, Montaigne and Shakespeare; Jane Austen entered the list in 1985, and Sappho, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison followed. I took the course again in 1991, writing a long report on the experience. In the fall of 2019, at the border of old age—I was seventy-six—I began taking it for the third time, and for entirely selfish reasons. In your mid-seventies, you need a jolt now and then, and works like “ Oedipus Rex ” give you a jolt. What I hadn’t expected, however, was to encounter catastrophe not just in the pages of our reading assignments but far beyond them.

In April, when the class began eight hours of discussion about “Crime and Punishment,” the campus had been shut down for four weeks. The students had arrived in New York the previous fall from a wide range of places and backgrounds, and now they had returned to them, scattering across the country, and the globe—to the Bronx, to Charlottesville, to southern Florida, to Sacramento, to Shanghai. My wife and I stayed where we were, in our apartment, a couple of subway stops south of the university, sequestered, empty of purpose, waiting for something to happen. I trailed listlessly around the apartment, and found it hard to sleep after a long day’s inactivity. I loitered in the kitchen in front of a small TV screen, like a supplicant awaiting favor from his sovereign. Ritual, the religious say, expresses spiritual necessity. At 7 P.M. , I stood at the window, just past the TV, and banged on a pot with a wooden spoon, in the city’s salute to front-line workers in the pandemic. Raskolnikov has been holed up in his room for a month at the beginning of “Crime and Punishment.” Thirty days, give or take, was how long I had been cut off from life when I began reading the book again.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, instead of making my way across College Walk and up the stairs to a seminar room in Hamilton Hall, I logged on to our class from home. The greetings at the beginning of each class were like sighs—not defeated, exactly, but wan. Our teacher, as always, was Nicholas Dames, a fixture in Columbia’s English Department. Professor Dames is a compact man in his late forties, with dark, deep-set eyes and a touch of dark mustache and dark beard around the edge of his jaw. He has been teaching Lit Hum, on and off, for two decades. He has one of those practiced teacher’s voices, a little dry but penetrating, and the irreplaceable gift of never being boring. At the beginning of the class, his face shadowed by two glaring windows on either side of him, he would struggle for a moment with Zoom. “This doesn’t feel like the experience we all signed up for,” he said. He couldn’t hear the students breathe, or feel them shift in their chairs, or watch them take notes or drift off. But his voice broke through the murk.

A man dressed in a Beatlesesque suit sits on a bench and looks for love in the petals of a flower.

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Nick Dames led the students through close readings of individual passages, linking them back, by the end of class, to the structure of the entire book. He is also a historicist, and has done extensive work on the social background of literature. He wanted us to know that nineteenth-century Petersburg—which Dostoyevsky miraculously rendered both as a real city and as a malevolent fantasy—was an impressive disaster. In the early eighteenth century, Peter the Great had commanded an army of architects and disposable serfs to build the place as a “rational” enterprise, intended to rival the great capitals of Western Europe. But, Professor Dames said, “ecologically, it was a failure.” Prone to flooding, the city had trouble disposing of sewage, which often found its way into the drinking water; in 1831, Petersburg was devastated by a cholera epidemic, and ordinary citizens, battered by quarantines and cordons, gathered in protests that turned into riots. After 1861, when Alexander II abolished serfdom, Professor Dames said, peasants came pouring in, looking for work. It was an unhealthy place, and it “wasn’t built for the population it was starting to have.” He put a slide on the screen, with a quotation from “The Metropolis and Mental Life” (1903), by the German sociologist Georg Simmel:

The psychological basis of the metropolitan type of individuality consists in the intensification of nervous stimulation which results from the swift and uninterrupted change of outer and inner stimuli . . . the rapid crowding of changing images, the sharp discontinuity in the grasp of a single glance, the unexpectedness of onrushing impressions.

“The rootlessness that Simmel writes about comes from detachment and debt,” Professor Dames said. “And it produces a constant paranoia—a texture of the illogical. And dreams become very important.”

Dostoyevsky ignores the magnificent imperial buildings, the huge public squares. He writes about street life—the voluble drunks, the lost girls, and the hungry children entertaining for kopecks. His Petersburg comes off as a carnival world without gaiety, a society that is neither capitalist nor communist but stuck in some inchoate transitional situation—an imperial city without much of a middle class. It seems to be missing the one aspect of life that insures survival: work. “With very few exceptions, everybody in the novel rents,” Professor Dames observed. “They are constantly moving among apartments that they can’t afford.” Social ties were frayed. “And the absence of social structure destroys families,” he said. “To the extent that families exist, they are really porous.”

Cast in this light, Raskolnikov’s rage against the pawnbroker looked quite different. He and a few of the other characters are barely clinging to remnants of status or wealth: a dubious connection with a provincial nobleman; a tenuous prospect of a meaningless job; or a semi-valuable possession, like an old watch. No wonder they hate the pawnbroker who helps keep them afloat, Alyona Ivanovna, “a tiny, dried-up old crone, about sixty, with sharp spiteful little eyes.” Raskolnikov is in a wrath of dispossession.

The city that Dostoyevsky experienced and Raskolnikov inhabited had long been a hothouse of reformist and radical ideas. In 1825, Petersburg was the center of the Decembrist Revolt, in which a group of officers led three thousand men against Nicholas I, who had just assumed the throne. The Tsar broke the revolt with artillery fire. In the late eighteen-forties, Dostoyevsky, then in his twenties, was a member of the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of literary men who met regularly to discuss reorganizing Russian society (which, for some members, included the overthrow of the tsarist regime). He was arrested, subjected to a terrifying mock execution, and sent off to Siberia, where he pored over the New Testament. By the time he returned to Petersburg, in 1859, he believed in Mother Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, and hated both radicalism and bourgeois liberalism. He put his ideological shift to supreme advantage: he was now the master of both radical and reactionary temperaments. “Crime and Punishment” is a religious writer’s notion of what happens to an unstable young man possessed by utopian thinking. Dostoyevsky certainly knew what was simmering below the surface: in March, 1881, a month after the novelist died, two bomb-throwers from a revolutionary group assassinated the reformist Tsar Alexander II in Petersburg. Thirty-six years later, Lenin returned to the city from exile and led the Bolsheviks to power. Raskolnikov was a failed yet spiritually significant spectre haunting the ongoing disaster.

The lively discussions around our seminar table earlier in the year were hard to sustain among so many screens; the students were often silent in their separate enclosures. But, as Professor Dames sorted through the form of the novel and the many contradictions of Raskolnikov, one student, whom I’ll call Antonio, burst out of the dead space.

“He’s arrogant,” Antonio said. “Self-righteous.” He noted that Raskolnikov seemed unbound by the rules that bound others. “But there’s something very appealing about this great-man idea,” he ventured. “Is this possible? Could somebody incarnate ‘the world spirit’ by murdering two women with an axe and getting away with it flawlessly? That some of us are rooting for Raskolnikov is a reflection of that question. Is someone really capable of rationalizing such a horrible action? After the twentieth century, this becomes a challenging question. What kind of person would you have to be to get away with it?”

Antonio, from Sacramento, was slender, a runner, with large glasses and a radiant smile. He had had a good education in a Jesuit school, and, at nineteen, he was erudite and attentive, abundant in sentences that sounded as if they could have been written. Listening to him, you heard a flicker of identification with the theory-minded murderer.

For all Raskolnikov’s sullen self-consciousness, he has moments of fellow-feeling and righteous anger. His family and friends adore him; even the insinuating and masterly investigator, Porfiry, believes that dear Rodya is worth fighting for. In our class, Raskolnikov’s feelings about the vulnerability of women—an important issue in “Crime and Punishment”—stirred a number of students, especially one I’ll call Julia, who often returned to the theme. There was the matter of Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, a provincial beauty, extremely intelligent but almost impoverished and therefore the victim of insolent monetary bids for her hand from two despicable middle-aged suitors. The situation incenses Raskolnikov.

“He firmly believes his sister is prostituting herself,” Julia said. “He has what seems to me a very radical and even progressive thought—marriage is a form of prostitution, a form of slavery. It’s kind of Catharine MacKinnon.”

Julia, who came from a Catholic Cuban family, had been an embattled feminist in her South Florida high school, which was filled with MAGA boys. In class, she hesitated for a second, but then, grinning in complicity with herself, moved swiftly through complicated feminist and social-justice ideas. Raskolnikov was a puzzle for her. “He’s using this philosophical defense to separate himself from the murder,” she said. Yet he wants to protect women, not just his sister but hapless young girls in the street. Was his interest a case of male “triumphalism”—a way of enhancing his power over women by helping them? Dostoyevsky’s writing about the subservient status of women was as outraged as anything the Brontës had produced, with the Russian additive of persistent violence. The male characters, telling stories in jocular tones, assume their right to beat women. “ ‘She’s my property,’ ” Julia mimicked. “ ‘I could have beaten her more.’ ” In the course of the novel, three different women, all given to extravagant tirades—a Dostoyevsky specialty—fall apart and die in early middle age.

I couldn’t escape the novel’s larger theme of decline: the incoherence of Petersburg, the breakdown of social ties, the drunkenness and violence. At that moment in April, our own city felt largely empty, but I often imagined American streets filled with jobless people, some clinging to hopes of returning to work, many without such hopes. We were halfway through the novel, halfway to the confusion and proud madness of Raskolnikov’s dream. Would we go the other half? Julia’s feminist reading, new for me, opened still another connection. The newspapers were reporting that domestic abuse had gone up among couples locked together. Women were now being punished, as the critic Jacqueline Rose would note, for the recent liberties they had achieved.

Looking for present-day resonances, I knew, was a grim and limited way of reading this work. “Crime and Punishment” is about many things—the psychology of crime, the destiny of families, the vanity and anguish of single men adrift. But, midway through the book, Dostoyevsky’s writerly exuberance allayed my worries. He’s an inspired entertainer, with his own hectic style of comedy. His characters show up reciting their troubles and lineages, their lives “hanging out on their tongues,” as the critic V. S. Pritchett put it. I was now sequestered in a welter of betrayals and loyalties, gossip and opinion: the assorted virtuous and vicious people in the book believe in manners, but they never stop talking about one another. Even the company of Dostoyevsky’s buffoons was liberating.

And Dostoyevsky’s extremity—his savage inwardness, his apocalyptic feverishness—had never felt so right. How many millions were now locked in their rooms muttering vile thoughts to themselves, or wondering about the point of their existence? He wrote about the absolute rationality of evil and the absurd necessity of goodness. He taunted himself and his readers with alarming propositions: What happens to man without God and immortal life? Big questions can result in banality, but when an idea is put forward in Dostoyevsky’s fiction it goes someplace—runs up against an opposing one, or is developed and refuted two hundred pages later. Such contradictions notably exist within characters. Dostoyevsky turned Raskolnikov’s unconscious into a field of action.

The students had returned to familiar surroundings (dogs barked in the background), but they had three or four other courses—not to mention all the anxieties of a precarious future—to contend with. Their college careers were messed up, their friendships interrupted, their campus activities and summer internships wiped out. As we read together in April, the university’s hospital, New York-Presbyterian, was filled with victims of the pandemic. Across the city, hundreds of them were dying every day. So many elements of our civilization had shut down: churches, schools, and universities; libraries, bookstores, research institutes, and museums; opera companies, concert organizations, and movie houses; theatre and dance groups; galleries, studios, and local arts groups of all kinds (not to mention local bars). Who knew what would perish and what would come back?

Two cats look at an unshreddable midcentury chair.

The students were discomfited, often quiet, almost abashed. In between classes, they sent Professor Dames their responses to the reading, and he used their notes to pull them into the conversation. As we approached the final dream and its awful picture of social breakdown, I continued searching the novel for indications of what could summon so dreadful a vision—and also of what suggested its opposite, a possibly more benevolent world that was also presaged by Dostoyevsky’s whirling contraries. In class, the conversation turned toward questions of moral indifference and sympathy. What obligations did we have to one another? Was there any redemptive value in suffering? For Americans, that last question was strange, even repellent, but in mid-April the language of hardship was all around us.

Antonio remained fascinated by the idea that one might achieve greatness by doing wrong in the service of a larger right. But during the crime itself Raskolnikov falls into an abstracted near-trance and does one stupid thing after another. Antonio had noted that Raskolnikov, standing in a police station, faints dead away when someone mentions the pawnbroker: “His body shuts off. The consequences of the act become unstoppable, even if you try to take intellectual approaches to prevent yourself from getting caught.” Antonio’s flirtation with the murderer was short-lived.

Raskolnikov blurts out many griefs and ambitions, but is never able to say exactly what propelled his actions. Dostoyevsky doesn’t want the reader to solve the mystery: he makes the crime both overdetermined and incoherently motivated. It was hard to judge a young man so intricately composed, and, when Professor Dames asked, “Do we want him to get away with it?,” he got no better than a mixed response. Raskolnikov wants, and doesn’t want, to escape punishment. His sulfurous inner monologues alternate between contempt for others and contempt for himself. Professor Dames, answering his own question, said that Dostoyevsky creates extraordinary suspense, but it’s psychological suspense: “Is he going to crack?”

Dostoyevsky intended moral suspense as well: Would Raskolnikov come to recognize that what he did was absolutely wrong? In the last third of the novel, the gentle but persistent Sonya offers a way out for him. “She’s not coming to Raskolnikov from a position of judgment,” Professor Dames said, “nor from a position of implied moral superiority. She’s saying, ‘We are two sinners.’ ” A deeply religious girl, she had taken to working the streets in a failed effort to save her crumbling family, and must endure Raskolnikov’s taunt that she has given up her happiness for nothing. In return, she presses him hard: Was he capable of acknowledging his own misery? The subsequent conversion of the snarling former student to Sonya’s doctrine—the necessity of suffering and salvation through Christ—is perhaps the most resolutely asexual seduction in all of literature. What could it mean for us?

In the next class, we were guided through the epilogue. Raskolnikov is in a prison camp, and Dostoyevsky’s narration shifts to a more removed, third-person voice. “For the first time, we’re outside Raskolnikov’s head in a sustained way,” Professor Dames said. “We’re separated from psychology, and it feels like a loss.” But Julia said she felt “relief,” and quoted the narrator’s remark about Raskolnikov: “Instead of dialectics, there was life.” By dialectics, Dostoyevsky meant all the theories plaguing the former student. A young man with a head crammed full of ideas, Raskolnikov needed “air.”

And what was “air” in this claustrophobic novel? The word, Professor Dames said, “was an articulation of something transcendental, certainly religious.” Julia was right to steer us to the line “Instead of dialectics, there was life.” It was the most important sentence in the novel. “But what is meant by ‘life’?” Professor Dames asked. Raskolnikov tries strenuously to shape that life, but in the end transcendence comes from a surrender of individuality, not an assertion of it. “The novel is a strong rebuke to individual happiness and individual rights and autonomy,” he said. At the end of the class, Zoom froze on Professor Dames, and he remained immobile on my screen, his dark eyes staring straight ahead. We all needed air.

The final dream is lodged in the novel’s epilogue. That dream is a creepy invention, evoking the genres of science fiction and horror: “Here and there people would band together, agree among themselves to do something, swear never to part—but immediately begin something completely different from what they themselves had just suggested, begin accusing one another, fighting, stabbing.” The struggle has a sinister dénouement: the few survivors of the disease are “pure and chosen, destined to begin a new generation of people and a new life.” The dream presents a vision of society even more feral than the author’s rendering of Petersburg earlier in the novel. Surely it’s also an extreme expression of Raskolnikov’s mind: having murdered two people, he now wants to murder the multitudes. But isn’t it the opposite as well? An expression of Raskolnikov’s sympathy, a boundless pity for a collapsing world? He remains complex and contradictory to the end.

I wasn’t the only reader in April to be alarmed by the dream of an “unknown and unseen pestilence.” As Julia wrote me in an e-mail, the dream was science fiction, but political science fiction; the notion of a few special survivors suggested a master race, a new form of white male privilege. She also saw the dream as reflecting on us. “I noticed that the infected persons who are stubborn in their beliefs to the point of madness bear a striking resemblance to Americans trying to talk politics,” she wrote. “The mobs of people described by Dostoyevsky recalled photos I saw of conservative folks in Michigan protesting stay-at-home orders at the capitol. The expressions on their faces and their screams, so convinced that their moral convictions are correct.” And Antonio wrote to me that “people can’t agree on what’s right and wrong, and, in our case, we know that ambiguity concerning the future can make people restless and highly partisan when reason and compassion is what’s needed in this situation.” His hope was that “we can humble ourselves enough to realize where we’ve gone wrong, to throw ourselves at the feet of the ‘insatiable compassion’ that Sonya represents and emerge better people. If we can do that, then we won’t have to simply survive.”

Two months later, my classmates had survived one experiment—the strangeness of intimate reading through remote learning. But the struggle for clarity and understanding had intensified on so many fronts. I thought of all the people acting with courage and generosity, not just the front-line warriors and the outsiders who rushed to New York to help when the outbreak began but the many people who created communities of faith or art online, or sent out all manner of useful advice on how to resist despair. The marchers protesting the murder of George Floyd and all that it symbolizes risked disease to express solidarity with one another. As the summer began, Antonio, to make money, found work at a nearby country club—cleaning floors, windows, and golf carts. He told me that it was hard for him to “think about the future, because of the current situation, with the protests and the pandemic,” although he didn’t rule out a job in government. Julia was interning for a legal nonprofit, and making plans to become a human-rights lawyer, perhaps for Amnesty International.

Every day, in Trump’s America, it seemed as though we were coming closer to the annihilating turmoil—the mixed state of vexation and fear—in Raskolnikov’s dream. The disease was everywhere, and it only heightened our world’s fissures and inequities. More than a hundred thousand had died, tens of millions were unemployed, many were hungry, and, at times, the country appeared to be unravelling. Some spoke of racism as a “virus,” the American virus; and the language of disease, though it miscasts a human-made scourge as a natural phenomenon, captures just how profoundly it has infiltrated the life of the country. The President’s every statement, meanwhile, was designed to widen chaos. He spoke of the need to “dominate,” and many of us were determined not to be dominated. We would not lose our individuality, like the poor murderer in his exile. But neither could we escape responsibility for the mess we had made, a mess we had bequeathed to the students, and to all of the next generation. I kept returning to Dostoyevsky’s book, looking for signs of how collective purpose can heal social divisions and injustices, stoking hope and resolve alongside fear, anything that would overtake the desperate anomie that Raskolnikov’s dream had conjured: “In the cities, the bells rang all day long: everyone was being summoned, but no one knew who was summoning them or why.” ♦

IELTS essay Crime and Punishment

Crime and punishment.

This blog teaches you how to write essays on the topic of Crime and Punishment.

It includes the following:

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐲:

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞:

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐠𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:

𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐄𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐲:

Capital Punishment: the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime.
Detention: the action of detaining someone or the state of being detained in official custody.
Forensics: scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of crime.
Incarceration: the state of being confined in prison; imprisonment.
Juvenile Delinquency: the habitual committing of criminal acts or offenses by a young person, particularly one below the age at which ordinary criminal prosecution is possible.
Misdemeanor: a minor wrongdoing; a non-indictable offense, regarded in the US (and formerly in the UK) as less serious than a felony.
Probation: the release of an offender from detention, subject to a period of good behavior under supervision.
Rehabilitation: the action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, addiction, or illness.
Restorative Justice: a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large.
Sentencing: the declaration of a punishment assigned to a defendant found guilty by a court, or fixed by law for a particular offense.

Crime and punishment are critical components of any society’s legal and moral framework, reflecting how a community upholds justice and social order. This topic encompasses the various aspects of the criminal justice system, the ethics of punishment, and the effectiveness of different punitive measures. Understanding these elements is essential for fostering a safer, more just society.

Debates in the realm of crime and punishment often revolve around the effectiveness and morality of various forms of punishment, such as capital punishment versus life imprisonment. Proponents of harsher sentencing argue that severe penalties deter crime more effectively. In contrast, advocates for rehabilitative approaches emphasize the potential for reducing recidivism through programs focused on reintegrating offenders into society. Another area of contention is the application of restorative justice and its role in healing communities versus traditional punitive measures.

𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Internationally, the debate over the abolition of the death penalty in various countries continues to evoke strong opinions on both sides.

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 punishment.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Some people believe that a uniform set of legal consequences should be applied to all offences, while others contend that the specific details and reasons behind each crime should be taken into account when determining the suitable penalty. This essay discusses both views and explains why I believe that the best approach would utilise both types of sentences depending on the severity of the case.

Advocates for fixed legal consequences have two main arguments. The main one is that a standardised approach ensures equality in the justice system. For instance, traffic violations typically incur set fines, which means that all lawbreakers receive the same penalty for the same criminal acts. Moreover, victims of crimes can feel that equity is upheld. This is because they can have clear expectations about the punishment perpetrators will receive.

Conversely, people who believe it is better to decide the penalty on a case-by-case basis, argue that such an approach neglects the nuances of individual cases. They assert that true justice requires consideration of the context of each crime, such as any mitigating circumstances. For instance, killing a person in self-defence should be treated differently than premeditated murder. Furthermore, in some cases where the perpetrator has suffered from an unusually harsh background, rehabilitation should be prioritised over retribution. For example, addiction or mental health issues may warrant treatment and support rather than strict prison sentences.

In conclusion, I believe both sides of the argument have merits. However, an ideal approach is to use fixed disciplinary actions for minor offences as they offer clarity and deterrence; however, for major offences where the consequences are severe, the circumstances should be considered to account for the intricacies of each case.

𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞:

Crime Commitment and Punishment Essay (Critical Writing)

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Crime commitment is a history-long and complicated social issue that has been addressed by many nations in a different way. Regardless of the variations between the views on the characteristic features of a crime and proper ways for punishment, one idea remains commonly relevant; namely, crimes are the results of delinquent behavior. Consequently, crime is committed by delinquents or people who have a desire, a need, or a psychological inclination to break the law. In my opinion, crimes are commonly committed by individuals whose judgment is impaired due to the strong adverse social influence. I believe that criminal activity is the result of social learning, which is why individuals who are raised in underprivileged communities or observe law-breaking since their youth are more likely to engage in unlawful behavior.

As for the crimes that our country should focus on, they should include the ones that have the most significant damage as the outcome. For example, murder, serial murders, and rape should be addressed with a particular level of precision since they result in the loss of human lives or significant psychological trauma. On the other hand, the crimes that the law enforcing system should concentrate on should include not only the most serious offenses but also those prevailing in contemporary society but not sufficiently addressed. For example, assault, bullying, and discrimination are some of the issues that require special attention.

Finally, the punishment that is required for crimes should be aligned with a general perspective of the corrective system on the interplay between delinquency and its outcomes for an offender. Indeed, I think that the law-enforcing system should work toward shifting from punishing to correcting the behavior of the individuals who commit crimes. While imprisonment is a valid punishment for severe crimes, it is important to implement correctional activities. They should be aimed at restructuring the psyche of the criminals and helping them learn new behaviors that would allow them to become law-abiding citizens in the future.

Field Note: Analysis, Reflection, and Activity Instructions
Bureaucratic Style of Prison Management
Ways of Punishing Offenders
Serial Killers: Law Enforcement Response to Serial Killing
The Psychology of Serial Killers
The Federal Bureau Investigation Crime Statistics
Police Departments in Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta
Miranda Rights When Interacting with Suspected
Ordinary vs. Hate Crime Activities: Key Differences
Criminology: The Case of Uncle Bob
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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An Essay on Crimes and Punishments

Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria (author)
Voltaire (author)

An extremely influential Enlightenment treatise on legal reform in which Beccaria advocates the ending of torture and the death penalty. The book also contains a lengthy commentary by Voltaire which is an indication of high highly French enlightened thinkers regarded the work.

EBook PDF This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty.
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An Essay on Crimes and Punishments. By the Marquis Beccaria of Milan. With a Commentary by M. de Voltaire. A New Edition Corrected. (Albany: W.C. Little & Co., 1872).

The text is in the public domain.

United States

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Band 9 sample essay about crime

Home » IELTS BAND 9 ESSAYS » Band 9 sample essay about crime

Crime is a big problem in the world; many believe that nothing can be done to prevent it. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your own opinion.

Crime is unquestionably one of the most prevailing and worrying aspects in any society, and its prevention should be taken seriously. Crime prevention can be executed in various ways, firstly through a sustained honest presence in the community and secondly through international cooperation.

A local presence by incorruptible law enforcement authorities may be costly, however, the long-term investment would pay dividends in the future. A safer region would encourage trade, investment and set an invaluable example for younger generations.

For example, crime has dramatically been reduced in the Favelas around Rio de Janiero in Brazil. This was achieved largely through the government committing large funds of money to stationing police headquarters in and around the slums. These financial expenditures greatly benefited the community.

Secondly, due to the large-scale severity and the global impact that crime has in some areas of the world, global cooperation is critical. Operating in a different way would incur significant financial losses and render any expenditure futile.

For example, Somalian pirates in Africa have reigned terror amongst many ocean transport companies in the area. Only through large-scale international cooperation was policing the area possible. Therefore, crime reduction can be attributed to a joint effort between countries.

To conclude, illegal activities are a costly and dangerous fact in the present global economy; however, through large-scale government investment prevention is an attainable goal. Also, spreading the expense through international cooperation the resources invested can be significantly more effective in reducing criminals’ effectiveness abroad.

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Ielts essay # 287 - fixed punishments for each type of crime, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, 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 punishment..

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Crime and Punishment, Essay Example

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Words: 301

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Crime is a violent act with an aim of hurting other individual. The aim of a crime is to destabilize the peace and tranquillity of the society. There are various aspects that make up a crime. They include:

The nature of the crime
The motive of the crime
Whether the culprit was caught or not
The punishment
The reason of the punishment
The effectiveness of the punishment

The above aspects are vital in understanding crime and punishment. Crime has origin like any other thing in existence. There are theories that have been brought up to understand crime with an aim of stopping it. These criminals behaviour are known to have been triggered by something to do these acts of violence. There are some French and Italian thinkers who have come up with various schools of thought to understand crime and the motives behind them. These thinkers have been able to understand the minds of criminals. Understanding the minds of the criminals can lead to early prevention of crime (Tonry, 2000).

The punishment for the crimes is something that has evolved through the ages. The punishment was meant to change the behaviour of the perpetrator and was to be fitting to the crime. This is something that initially brought up a lot of problems since the perpetrators came out not reformed. It is something that has changed over the ages as various reformers have come up to change the status quo. These reformers made a significant difference and the change was positive. The main reason for punishment is being achieved now. This is now up for debate since change comes from an individual choice to change their habit and behaviour ( Dostoevsky, 2004).

Tonry H. Michael . (2000). The Handbook of Crime & Punishment . Foster City, CA: Oxford University press.

Dostoevsky F. (2004). Crime and Punishment Enriched Classics . Kentucky: Simon and Schuster.

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The Classic Journal

A journal of undergraduate writing and research, from wip at uga, an analysis of crime and punishment.

by Paris Whitney

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novel that has been deemed controversial, yet notable over the course of centuries. This novel was influenced by the time period and setting of 19 th century St. Petersburg, Russia. Society was transitioning from medieval traditions to Westernization, which had a large impact on civilians, specifically those in poverty. Dostoevsky writes this novel centered around a poor man whose poverty drives him to test an ideology that results in his own detriment. Although this is important, the plot is only part of what makes this novel significant. What continues to make this novel memorable centuries after it was written is how Dostoevsky uses the concept of time to progress the plot and establish information, how his use of symbolism contributes to the message and meaning of the story and its characters, and how his writing has unintentionally embraced and related to different philosophies.

symbolism, nature, time, philosophy, existentialism, ego transcendence

Fyodor Dostoevsky is perhaps the most controversial author of the nineteenth century. His best-known work is Crime and Punishment , a novel that explores the psychological depths of man. At the center is Raskolnikov, a character who inflicts and experiences a great deal of suffering, all because he perceives himself to be superior to the average man.

Crime and Punishment takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. The time is 1860, Alexander II holds reign, and consequently political skepticism is abundant. In addition to skepticism, the country’s economic state has disproportionate effects on its citizens, as the increasing wealth gap parallels the increase of turmoil in the streets. The novel follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a man of lower class whose poverty leads him to forming an idea and testing its validity. This theory is that certain men are exempt from laws created by society, as their actions against these laws are done for the greater good. In order to test this theory, Raskolnikov forms a plan to murder Alyona Ivanovna, an old pawnbroker whom he has had many exchanges with. After killing Ivanovna, he ends up killing her sister Lizaveta as well, when her appearance at Ivanovna’s apartment startles his original plan. In a frenzy, he leaves their bodies at the crime scene, and on his way out his mental state begins to spiral leading the readers to follow his psychological decline.

Around the world, philologists and psychologists alike have studied Crime and Punishment to understand what makes this work essential to literature. Through studies of symbolism, philosophy, and psychology, it is recognized how Dostoevsky uses the concept of time to develop the story, how he uses symbolism to reflect underlying emotions and intentions of characters, and how different ideologies may be related to the meaning behind Crime and Punishment. These components used together showcase how Dostoevsky’s work remains notable for centuries.

Crime and Punishment is a novel symbolic of the drawbacks that society can have on individuals, specifically those who are at a disadvantage as a result of their class or mental state. When Dostoevsky penned this novel, the time was 1866. 19 th century Russia was a transition period from medieval traditions to Westernization. During this transition, many people struggled to accommodate to the changing times. There was unrest in the streets, conflict amongst the classes, economic upheaval, and a lack of concern for those suffering by the government. Those who were of higher class were better able to navigate this complex transition, while those in poverty lacked the materials necessary to accommodate to the coming changes. Previously Westernized countries exhibited unrest fromtheir populations while progressing in societal advancement. There was concern about this potentially translating into Russia’s development. Russia was not exempt from these issues, and Dostoevsky was no help in assuring that peace would be maintained. Dostoevsky’s work concerned people in power when he indirectly made an association between violence and societal progression, and how this may prompt the masses to revolt against their government. Localized current events, such as a rise in domestic violence and murder, also influenced this novel. Due to these real-life events that inspired Dostoevsky’s work, it can be said that Crime and Punishment is an accurate representation of its time period [ 1 ] .

Not only was time period an influence on his work, but Dostoevsky would manipulate the concept of time itself to convey the meaning behind his stories. In Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky writes Raskolnikov as a character continuously in a fever of thoughts. His mind is constantly running rampant, unrelenting even in slumber. Before significant events Raskolnikov would either flashback or dream of memories foreshadowing future moments. An example of this is before committing to murder Alyona Ivanovna, his subconscious takes him and the reader back to a moment where he and his father witnessed the cruel killing of a mule at the hands of a crowd for being too weak to pull a wagon . From a third person perspective, young Raskolnikov’s reaction to this moment is described hither, “But by now the poor boy is beside himself. With a shout he plunges through the crowd into the sorrel, embraces her dead, bloodstained muzzle, and he kisses her, kisses her on the eyes, on the mouth…” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 57). By preceding Raskolnikov’s murderous intentions with his younger self’s mournful reaction to the mule’s death shows the audience how Raskolnikov has developed over time, and the degeneration resulting from his experiences in life.Time also seems to slow down when Raskolnikov is in moments of heightened emotion , because as he loses the ability to conceptualize, the more feverish his mind becomes. Towards the end of the novel, Raskolnikov reflects on the events that have occurred, saying “after a long time had passed, he thought his consciousness must have kept flashing on and off, with several dim, dark intervals, right up to the final catastrophe. He was absolutely convinced he had been mistaken about many things at the time; the duration of time of certain events, for example.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 417). This feverish mindset also manifests into physiological symptoms, giving Raskolnikov the appearance of being sick. “He was not completely unconscious all the time he was sick, but rather delirious, in a feverish state of half consciousness. He could recall a good deal later. Once in his room seemed full of people… They had all gone out. They were afraid of him.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 112). Dostoevsky uses syntax and diction to write these occurrences in a way that mimics Raskolnikov’s thinking. The transitions between events are frenetic, reflecting the tumultuous thoughts that plague Raskolnikov as a result of his actions. Choosing to modify the chronology of the novel in this way, he emphasizes the severity of situations by making the readers feel like they are experiencing the event as well.

In addition to this, Crime and Punishment contains levels of symbolism to enhance the mental conditions of characters . George Gibian explored traditionalsymbolism [2] within Crime and Punishment , and came to find that many motifshave religious roots. Ranging from Christianity to Paganism to Russian Orthodoxy, Dostoevsky’s implementation of images such as water, vegetation, air, and earth come together to express the mental state of the characters immersed in a particular setting. For example, Gibian described how water is used as a symbol of rebirth or regeneration. In Crime and Punishment , Raskolnikov would aimlessly walk about the setting in moments where his mind and thoughts were chaotic. He would end up in symbolically important nature scenes, for instance beside a river that ran through his town, or on the ground surrounded by bushes and trees. When near the water, he would feel the weight of guilt coming from the crimes he has committed. “He stared at the darkening water of the canal. He seemed to be scrutinizing this water. At last red circles danced before his eyes, the buildings swayed, the passersby, the embankments, the carriages- everything around him began to swirl and dance. All of a sudden he shuddered. A wild and grotesque scene saved him, perhaps, from another fainting spell.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 163). In this scene, Raskolnikov’s physiological symptoms begin to arise as his consciousness fights for contrition. This is important because Raskolnikov’s proximity to water when these feelings arise is representative of the good side of his conscience, trying to push him in the direction of what is right.

While water and vegetation are symbols that typically have a positive connotation, their presence can be used to emphasize the degeneration of one’s mental state . An example would be Svidrigailov, a character whose presence is nothing short of problematic. He strives to satisfy his erotic desires regardless of who may be harmed in the process, solidifying his position as one of the antagonists in Crime and Punishment . Svidrigailov also possesses a dislike for nature. This is shown when he visits St. Petersburg, and in his final night of life he ends up spiraling in his hotel room. During this downward spiral, he hears the sound of trees rustling outside of his window combined with rain. Instead of comforting him, they drive him further towards insanity. “‘The trees are sighing. I must admit I don’t care for the sighing of trees on a dark, stormy night- it gives me the creeps!’” He takes time to contemplate his life, saying, “ ‘I never in my life liked water… You’d think now, of all times, I’d be indifferent to these fine points of esthetics and comfort, whereas actually I’m fussier,’” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 480). He resents the sound of vegetation when having a mental breakdown, and he ends up committing suicide in the midst of a fog that has emerged after a thunderstorm- showing his opposition to growing as a person. The use of nature as a way to reflect internal torments and emotions of different characters shows Dostoevsky’s proficiency in storytelling. Having the character’s surroundings speak the unspoken about what they may be feeling adds a level of meaning to the novel. This implementation of pathetic fallacy strengthens the story while aiding the reader in understanding the message of the text. When looking at the novel as a whole, it is clear nature bridges a connection between the audience and the author, by contextualizing events using the description of the setting where they take place. The narrator establishing the environment before delving into details about actions is a way to indicate to the reader potential outcomes of events, or foreshadow underlying emotions.

Symbolism in this novel does not stop with traditional aspects. Janet Tucker [3] explored the significance of clothing in respect to a character’s religious prospects and how their clothing reflects their beliefs or state of mind. When being worn by someone who has dedicated their life to Christ, clothing is modest and kept to the best of their ability. Sonya is a character in Crime and Punishment who serves as a deuteragonist, being one of the women that only have pure intentions when it comes to helping Raskolnikov. She tries to help Raskolnikov find faith and become a better person, and she does her best to comfort him in his worst moments of mental distress. Sonya even follows Raskolnikov to Siberia when he is imprisoned, despite his resistance to loving her. After analyzing this description of character, it can be said that Sonya’s clothes reflect the graciousness of her soul. She conceals her body in rags because she is poor, although she tries her best to keep them from becoming tattered, showing her values and how she maintains her composed state of mind. Comparing her to Raskolnikov, his mental state is too far distracted for him to care about trivial matters such as his appearance. His clothes are riddled with holes, and he lacks the incentive to fix the damage. An interesting point that Tucker made is how Raskolnikov uses his clothes in his crimes. He wears an overcoat that he uses to conceal his murder weapon and the items he has stolen from Ivanovna after killing her. Considering this, Tucker’s point is validated by the quality of clothing matching the quality of the person who bears it. Dostoevsky using clothing to portend the mental state and values that characters hold is a creative and effective way to give the readers insight as to how they will be progressing throughout the novel. Astute members of the audience will be able to recognize the differences among presentation of characters and base predictions about their actions off of their clothing. It is also interesting to see how characters’ religious affiliations can be observed through their attention to quality of clothing, reflecting how they choose to preserve and care for their items. In contrast to nature’s reflection of emotions, clothing gives insight about personal traits and the morals that shape a character into who they are.

While symbolism is important to developing the meaning behind Crime and Punishment , what makes this novel so notable are the philosophies it both challenges and embraces unintentionally. Existentialism [4] is a philosophy maintaining the belief that as individuals, there is a right within everyone to determine quality of life through acts of free will. It is easy to see how Crime and Punishment can be regarded by many existentialists as representative of this philosophy, but overall Dostoevsky is not one many would like to consider an archetype for existentialism. And, in retrospect, he is not. Dostoevsky’s main character in Crime and Punishment spends a lot of his time soliloquizing his belief that certain men are greater than others. Raskolnikov thinks men like this come to be by exercising their free will in ways that defy the common laws of life, but with the intention that what they are doing will better the world in the end. This idea is the reason behind Raskolnikov’s eventual murder of Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her half-sister Lizaveta. He kills Ivanovna as a way to test if he can be one of these people, but quickly discovers in the throes of his crime that he is not. This misconstrued idea of free will presented in Crime and Punishment can be where many begin to wonder if Dostoevsky was an existentialist. But a conclusion can be made that Dostoevsky’s free will is psychologically based and pushes the boundaries between what is right and what is wrong. Existentialism, on the other hand, is a philosophy centered around creativity and authenticity of the self.

On a more granular level, while Dostoevsky was not an existentialist, his work shows his agreement with the philosophical concept of ego transcendence [5] . Transcendence of the ego is described as an advancement of the “authentic self” through experiences that result in a greater awareness. Once this awareness is achieved, this person usually begins to see themselves as greater than the average human. This is easily relatable to Raskolnikov’s philosophy that he reiterates often throughout the novel. The way that Dostoevsky sets his characters up for transcendence is through suffering. Richard Chapple analyzed the way Dostoevsky progresses Crime and Punishment by noting the use of the prism of the divine [6] . The prism of the divine includes 6 reasons that people suffer, and Dostoevsky provides different scenarios for representations of each reason. Raskolnikov suffers as a result of “recognition of transgression,” which is his guilt overpowering him after killing two women. It is even more stressful because in this guilt he realizes that he is not the monumental person he thought he was. In turn, he suffers because of “involvement in the torments and suffering of others,” as a result of brutally murdering his victims, followed by “greed and ambition.” Once failing to follow through with his entire plan beyond murdering Ivanovna, the weight of his ambition becomes heavy as it never had a chance at being attained. This dissatisfaction with himself contributes more to his depression than the fact that he is a murderer.

The last three prisms of the divine are “lack of faith,” “pride,” and the “inability to love.” Here, it is important to note Chapple’s perspective on how pride stems into all categories of suffering. Chapple discussed concepts such as clothing, a previously mentioned symbol, and how its relation to pride can be interpreted. He states, “The proud often suffer because of poverty or other seemingly external circumstances such as name, clothing and position. Pride generates a façade, and characters wear masks to conceal an inner reality…” (1983, p. 97). While Raskolnikov’s hubris is his biggest torment, Raskolnikov suffers for all of these reasons, and these intersections are where Sonya tries to ease his pain. When Raskolnikov is in his apartment with Sonya and is attempting to explain his crimes, she reassures him that she will not forsake him as he believes she will, going as far as to promise to follow him wherever he goes, even to prison. When he asks her what he should do, she advises him to go back to where he committed these atrocities, kiss the earth and kneel on the ground, then confess aloud that he is a murderer. By doing so, he is confessing to God and has a chance of being forgiven for his sins.

While religion plays a big role in Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky’s implementation of Lazarus is predominately referencing the song rather than the biblical story- though that is mentioned. The Lazarus song [7] is a song that encapsulates the belief that the relationship between the rich and the poor should include the rich helping those in poverty by almsgiving. When Raskolnikov is preparing to face Porfiry Petrovich, a detective in the case of Ivanovna and Lizaveta’s murders, he says to himself “I’ll have to play the part of Lazarus for him too,” ( Crime and Punishment , 237). When Raskolnikov says this, he means that he is going to have to embrace his situation as a poor, college dropout, as a way to appear more innocent to Petrovich. This manipulation is seen from the side of poor people such as Raskolnikov, but also from those of wealth.

Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, was engaged to a man of the name Luzhin who expected her to marry him out of desperation. When Dunya backs out of the marriage, Luzhin scolds himself for not using his money to manipulate her into staying by purchasing expensive gifts, as opposed for thinking he should have treated her better. It is through secondary characters like these when many underlying messages are being portrayed. While Raskolnikov is the central character of Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky uses secondary characters as a way to reflect certain aspects that Raskolnikov may be lacking, such as consciousness and an ability to recognize and admit to one’s mistakes. With Sonya, she was a part of a family that forced her into prostitution because they were too poor to provide for her, with a father who was too drunk to care. Marmeladov was the father’s name, and he is who Raskolnikov first meets in a bar and confesses to his shame about the situation he has put his daughter in. Similarly, Raskolnikov’s mother reduces his sister to working in uncomfortable scenarios in order to be able to send Raskolnikov to college. She feels guilt at this when Dunya becomes the center of town drama, after the husband in the family she works for begins to lust after her. These characters have made mistakes, but what parallels them to Raskolnikov is the fact that they acknowledge their wrongs, whereas he has to find the courage to do so .

Raskolnikov’s struggles with admitting that he can make mistakes like anybody else stem from his beliefs that there are two types of people in the world. He references Napoleon throughout the novel, because he believes him to be an example of how things considered to be bad have to happen in order for progress to be made. Pearl Niemi defines this as “power-cult [ 8] ,” the part of Raskolnikov believing in certain people’s superiority to regular laws. The part of Raskolnikov that cripples him once he tries exercising this belief can be referred to as “child-cult.” The child-cult is Raskolnikov’s emotions and thoughts that challenge the power-cult and ultimately overtake it. This duality within Raskolnikov has an interesting relation with his name. “Raskolot,” is the Russian verb meaning division, or split. When analyzing the schism between Raskolnikov’s feelings and actions, it gives his name a greater meaning and shows how Dostoevsky was very intentional with his work.

Considering what makes a novel notable, Hugh Curtler [9] elaborated on the idea that a novel which can be widely interpreted is what makes it memorable. Curtler referred to the part of the writer that allows for this to happen as the “poet,” because they write without clarification. In this respect, they acknowledge how Dostoevsky was successful at this throughout the majority of Crime and Punishment. Where Curtler thought Dostoevsky failed with this novel is in the epilogue. Instead of leaving the audience to gather their own opinions about certain aspects, he writes an epilogue that confirms what would have been better left unsaid, specifically Raskolnikov’s ability to feel emotions such as sadness, love, regret,etc .

In retrospect, Dostoevsky’s use of time, symbolism, and philosophical aspects in Crime and Punishment each provide different levels of meaning to the story. When incorporating the concept of time in terms of context and story progression, it allows the reader to grasp the importance of the events being foreshadowed, in addition to understanding the influences on decisions of characters. His attention to detail using motifs to communicate underlying emotions and intentions of his characters creates another layer of meaning for this novel, as the interpretation of these motifs make Crime and Punishment different for every reader. And lastly, Dostoevsky’s novel embraces different philosophies, while simultaneously maintaining its individuality from any one ideology. He writes this novel in a way where it applies to different ideals, wherein itself it is exclusive from being categorized, due to its unique central message. This message is one that can be applied to many time periods in history, including the 21 st century. The inevitable progression of societies tends to commonly leave those who are underprivileged to fend for themselves. When this isolation persists, is it unexpected to have people who attempt to create a life for themselves trying to prove that they are worth something, when their government treats them like nothing? Crime and Punishment provides a variety of perspectives for the audience’s consideration. Despite the many ways that this novel can be read and interpreted, one thing is clear, Crime and Punishment is illustrious.

Bourgeois, P. (1980). Dostoevsky and Existentialism: An Experiment in Hermeneutics. Journal of Thought, 15(2), 29-37. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42588842

Chapple, R. (1983). A Catalogue of Suffering in the Works of Dostoevsky: His Christian Foundation. The South Central Bulletin, 43(4), 94-99. doi:10.2307/3187246

Curtler, H. (2004). The Artistic Failure of Crime and Punishment. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38 (1), 1-11. doi:10.2307/3527358

Dostoevsky, F. (1866). Crime and Punishment. Signet Classics.

Gibian, G. (1955). Traditional Symbolism in Crime and Punishment. PMLA, 70 (5), 979-996. doi:10.2307/459881

Harrison, L. (2013). THE NUMINOUS EXPERIENCE OF EGO TRANSCENDENCE IN DOSTOEVSKY. The Slavic and East European Journal, 57(3), 388-402. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43857534

Ivanits, L. (2002). The Other Lazarus in Crime and Punishment. The Russian Review, 61 (3), 341-357. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3664132

Kohlberg, L. (1963). Psychological Analysis and Literary Form: A Study of the Doubles in Dostoevsky. Daedalus, 92(2), 345-362. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026782

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[9] Curtler, H. (2004). The Artistic Failure of Crime and Punishment. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38(1), 1-11. doi:10.2307/3527358

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Guest Essay

After 17 Years in Prison, I’m a Different Person. Do Cases Like Mine Deserve a Second Look?

An illustration of a flower reaching up from behind a fence.

By Joseph Sanchez

Mr. Sanchez is a writer incarcerated in New York.

At 21, I was a full-time college student. I also sold drugs and carried guns. In the early-morning hours of April 7, 2007, I was shot on a Bronx street, along with two other people. I survived. One person didn’t. The third, who was badly injured, gave testimony at trial that suggested I shot everyone, including myself. Based on that, I was convicted of all charges.

I maintain my innocence, but I am not here to convince you of that. Innocent-man narratives often discount the need for reforms to help all people, including guilty people. I want to tell you instead about the person I have become over the past 17 years in prison and the people I have met here.

At Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the Catskill Mountains in New York, I’m incarcerated with men who have earned college degrees while incarcerated and who fill their days with volunteer work. Despite bettering our lives — or aging out of criminal behavior — we have no opportunity to demonstrate our rehabilitation outside of parole hearings that may come decades in the future.

Lawmakers across the country have proposed so-called Second Look laws. The First Step Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018, gave federal judges the discretion to reduce the sentences of people convicted of federal crimes when there’s compelling evidence to do so.

In New York, State Senator Julia Salazar has introduced legislation that could help reset past policies that contributed to ballooning populations in state prisons. The state’s Second Look legislation would allow judges to weigh factors like victim impact statements, age, whether the prisoners were penalized for bringing their cases to trial (instead of accepting a plea bargain) and participation in rehabilitation programming when considering sentence reductions.

The bill is receiving plenty of support, including from people who will make decisions about the fates of prisoners, like the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, Rowan Wilson . While running for re-election last year, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said , “Ultimately, there may be individuals who are incarcerated on sentences that no longer meet today’s sensibility of justice.”

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COMMENTS

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