1JURISPRUDENCE OF THE CRIMIANL LAW Punishment Mens rea is regarded to be a requirement of many crimes. As per the common law test of criminal liability the act is not guilty unless involves a guilty mind. In ‘The Penal Colony’ the punishment of the convicted prisoner is performed on his skin before he is let die, all within twelve hours, by the last use of an intricate instrument of torture and execution. Sometimes it has been observed that the act of the defendant is not of that evil. Despite this, the wrongdoer always found guilty and punished in such a brutal way. As per the law, whoever commits crime needs to be punished because the fear of punishment helps to reduce the crime rate. Without giving punishmentitisnotpossibletomakeacrime-freesociety.However,thepunishment implemented ‘In the Penal Colony’ is not appropriate. It is brutal and also excessive. No chance had been given to the accused to prove himself not guilty. Rather, this kind of brutal punishment is considered to be a form of justice which is also insufficient. A cost-benefit analysis may be utilized by the state to observe that how much cost usually involves punishing an offender. The primary purpose of punishment is to safeguard society, by preventing future criminals from committing more offenses, by modifying and rendering the actual perpetrator a legally-conscious person. To achieve this goal punishment needs to be proportionate (Reiman & Leighton, 2015). Many criminologists are of the view that punishment must fit the crime. If it does not fit the crime it has a great negative impact on society and treated as a failure of justice. The victim and relatives of victims of violent crimes feel insulted by the fact that the courts fail to ensure that perpetrators pay the price for their destruction.
2JURISPRUDENCE OF THE CRIMIANL LAW Retribution In the Penal Colony, criminal discipline is imposed using a device penal spectacle. Retribution is enforced by the destruction of the human body since the human body is the perfect way to regulate the minds and hearts of those they govern. Thus the system of the punishment as mentioned in the Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’ is undoubtedly brutal and not fit for the criminal justice system. We always hear that the judicial system needs to be just and fair. The doctrine of ‘Audi alteram partem’ should be followed in the judicial system but the justice system observed in the penal colony does not follow this doctrine and found the wrongdoers always guilty. I observed that the Officer serves in the criminal colony as a judge, jury, and executioner and is the last person to abide by the rule of law established by the former Commandant because the Officer is fascinated with the tool, torture and killing machine designed by the old commandant. Here, the writer attempts to portray an older, hierarchical society in which the few rulers control the masses and use their influence to retain power by brutally punishing anyone who fails to obey their laws. In this piece, the machine had been used to understand the victim the nature of justice. The machine, however, malfunctions as it had not been repaired for a long time. The breakdown of the machine is symbolic which indicated that it is important to change the nature of the judicial system periodically so that it can take decisions appropriately (Cumberland, 2013).
3JURISPRUDENCE OF THE CRIMIANL LAW Reference Cumberland, R. (2013). Inscribed Bodies: The Cruel Mirage of Imperialistic Idealism in Kafka's" Penal Colony".Papers on Language and Literature,49(2), 203. Reiman, J., & Leighton, P. (2015).Rich get richer and the poor get prison, the (subscription): Ideology, class, and criminal justice. Routledge.