A personal view of punishmentIntroductionIn my opinion punishment is a term well known by children and criminals. As a child you learn what you can and can't do in life by pushing yourself to the limits, seeing how far you can go before you get punished. You overcome these limitations through school, peers, family, society, or the criminal justice system. Punishment is a course in life that, if presented correctly, the teacher will teach the student a lesson that will last a lifetime. That is why when a person has done something wrong they should be punished as close as possible to the time and/or place of the incident. "If punishment is delayed for a long time, the connection between it and the offense becomes blurred. There is little point in punishing someone who has behaved correctly for a long time for a past transgression." (Braswell, McCarthy, & McCarthy, 2002) Punishment gives a person or society a sense of security. The security is that if someone commits a crime against someone they will be punished. There have been many famous philosophers and theorists who have studied the term punishment. They studied different types of punishment and its effects. The goals of punishment and the role it plays in today's society have changed over time. The concept of punishment, its definition, its use and the justification for its use have puzzled many countries for centuries. Punishment takes many forms. A parent may ground their child for refusing to do homework, an employer may fire a worker caught stealing, or the government may send a bank robber to prison for robbing a bank. "Throughout history, children have been punished for bad behavior, whether physical (e.g., a slap or even a hit in more primitive times), psychological (e.g., being deprived of a valuable possession or an opportunity such as dessert or television), or shame (for example, having to stand in the corner. The emphasis was on letting children know that the behaviors for which they were being punished were not acceptable and on conditioning a response to prevent such behavior in the future." (Seiter, 2002) Punishment is a means of deterring a person from indulging in unwanted behavior. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term punishment as "the action of punishing. The punishment inflicted for a crime.