The Rational Basis And Realization Of Softening Criminal Punishment

Just as famous German scholar, Yelin, has pointed out that criminal punishment was like a two-edged sword and it would do harm to both the state and its people. The criminal punishment causes more and more attention as an important problem in theory of criminal law and legislation practice.How did the criminal law come into being and where will it advance? We pay close attention to its past and future. Heavy punishment and light punishment are two opposite viewpoints, and I agree to the latter.Light criminal punishment is involved in how far and wide the criminal law affects the society. It is the maim contents of rationalization and modernization of criminal punishment. While using criminal punishment to regulate the social life, the state should control the range and severity of criminal punishment so as to obtain the highest social effects at the lowest cost. In order to prevent and control crime, the state should try to get the greatest effects by less or no criminal punishment. We have to Prevent two tendency of the surplus of criminal punishment legislation and its overusing in jurisdiction as regard to the realization of light criminal punishment.In this article, the author tries to find its developmental trend along the history of criminal punishment, think over its aim, function and value, explore its rational basis by comparing home and abroad, and put forward some suggestions in improving Chinese present criminal law. We are trying to make our criminal law more scientific and humanity, and play a more important role in protecting human rights and society. The author also wants to tell us that criminal punishment is a kind of resources and we must remember to treasure it.Besides preface and conclusion, the article can be divided into the following seven parts.