Purpose Of Prevention As The Legitimacy Of The Penalty

The problem about the purpose of penalty is a significant issue in criminal law areas. It is said that it was regarded as the foundation of the entire modern penalty theory system. The choice value of this issue instructs the penalty's formation and implementation directly. However, in a long time, either domestic or abroad scholars have different views on this issue and divided into several schools. Academic views on the purpose of penalty is also controversial and debated fiercely.Basing on academic research and documents,analysing and exploring various doctrines, the author believe that the purpose of penalty is prevention to crimes and retribution is a basic principle in sentence law. Besides, the author points that retribution should not be used as the purpose of punishement, it should be regarded as the basics for justice and deep-rooted character of penalty. On the other hand, this article has made deep investigation of penalty purpose from tow aspects: Both general prevention and special prevention. Furthermore, this article also reasons the dialectical relationship between them from macro-perspective, the emphases on them should be different from various stages in criminal conviction activities. In modern socialization legislation environment, the mainstream is weakening or even eliminating the general prevention, but enhancing the special prevention. We should not emotionally but rationally adhere to humanism and protect human right in penalty level.