Punishment as such is viewed as a form of personal engineering, designed to produce better people through a process of re-education. (Curan and Renzeth, 1998) Davey in relation to the theory of rehabilitation argued that during the past twenty years, we have seen an unprecedented move in the direction of massive incarceration of those convicted of crime. Davey reasoned that the approach prevalent at a particular time depends largely on the social and political climate. For example, in the early 1970s, the declared goal of incarceration was rehabilitation but as crime rose, support for this liberal position diminished. (Davey, 2002) as criminologist Kevin Wright has pointed out, "Federal, state and local governments have reacted to public sentiment by passing legislation that provides for longer sentences for violent crimes and legislative, executive and judicial bodies are streamlining due process rights to protect the innocent rather than the guilty" (Wright, 1985: 95)

Social protection is evident in the growth of community-based preventive programs has contributed to lower crime rates. These programs are characterized by the delivery of basic social services that include food, shelter and education. The programs are implemented by non-government organizations, church, cause oriented groups and other members of civil society. It has been argued that prevention has taken the backseat to incarceration in the recent years. (Currie, 2002)

The appropriateness...

As society degenerates, people would be clamoring their leaders to institute laws for greater and inhumane punishments for criminals. Leaders who want to set examples against criminals are inclined on the deterrence approach, while leaders who believe in the basic goodness of man will choose the reform and social protection approaches. At the end of the day, it is imperative to strike a balance of establishing punishment along the lines of equity, the punishment should be commensurate to the crime and at the same time setting the necessary measures through social support systems like the family, church and schools so that the offender would not be tempted to commit another crime.