Kant thinks that punishment is just because it is deserved through the offense. Hegel says that punishment is the reestablishment of the right, which the criminal has destroyed. We must punish, writes Honderich, because in the suffering of the guilty there is an intrinsic good. Ahsworth points out that the purpose of punishment is to restore the balance that the crime broke.

 

In a country like Colombia that navigates in the ambivalence of crime and punishment, it is valid to quote phrases of famous characters such as the above, since they all reflect the feeling of a society evolved in crime with a craving for punishment.

 

Crime is the behavior of a person that is contrary to the law. These actions have punishments according to their gravity and type. For there to be a crime, an action must occur that has three primary characteristics:

 

Typicality. There are laws in which the conduct carried out must be found. If it is not within the criminal law, it cannot be considered a crime.

 

Antijuridicity. There are “causes of justification” in which an action, although it may be typified, is not antijuridical. In the case of crimes, it must have both characteristics.

 

Culpability. Here the particular case of the person must be studied to know if he/she is the one who carried out the action. The imputability (capacity to execute the crime consciously) and the forms of culpability are taken into account. Article 14 of the Colombian Criminal Code (Law 599 of 2001) states: “Any person accused of a crime has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to the law”.

 

In the Colombian Criminal Code there are different types of crimes, but it is common to speak of three in particular:

 

Fraudulent offenses. These criminal actions are committed by the person in full awareness of his violation of the law. He knows very well that his actions will affect third parties. These include theft and homicide.

 

Culpable crimes. These actions are committed without intention they take place accidentally. However, they are punishable acts because they are committed in a reckless manner.

 

Pre-intentional crimes. These actions affect other people far from the contemplation of the person committing the crime. It is an act where the intention is to harm one or several people, but due to the type of action, more people than those intended are affected.

 

Some typifications of crimes can also be found according to the forms of action (by commission and by omission), by their procedural form (public action and private action), by the damage they can cause (injury, damage, against humanity).

 

A crime may have different repercussions, so its seriousness may vary according to several factors. Likewise, the penalties imposed for these are variable and depend on the characteristics of the crime committed.

"Every human being wishes to guarantee his survival, therefore, each individual grants the State his natural freedom, in exchange for the State guaranteeing his conservation and personal well-being, thus acquiring civil liberty. Thus, when the individual commits a fault that contravenes this agreement, he must be punished according to the laws. The author calls this pact the Social Contract" (Rousseau, 1973, p. 17-19).

 

Punishment seeks general prevention (to dissuade others from committing crimes) and special prevention (to prevent the offender from reoffending). Punishment also seeks fair retribution for the harm caused and the social reintegration of the offender. Seen in this way, punishment has become a convenient method to force and regulate that every human being commits in an adequate way with the ideal social coexistence. In Colombia these situations occur regularly and have turned punishment into the only method that maintains social cohesion.

 

Currently, society coexists with an endless number of laws to regulate collective life, in turn there are a set of punishments that bring negative repercussions to a lifestyle; but those who live within this framework, most are not aware of the role of these laws within society.

 

Therefore, we can say that punishments are necessary to maintain order within society and to respect social coexistence.