Arguments For and Against
Fines are considered to be a cost-efficient and fair way of punishment for those who commit a non-violent offense. Lengthy prison sentences for minor offenses such as drug possession cost taxpayers more, remove otherwise productive citizens from society, and impose a fear on society as a whole because of over-policing and excessive prosecution.
Fines are counter-productive if the offender commits more offences to get the money to pay the fine.
The effect of a fine is lessened if the money to pay the fine is raised by contributions by the offender's associates, or if his family rather than himself go short to save back the lost money.
Read more about this topic: Fine (penalty)
Famous quotes containing the word arguments:
“Argument is conclusive ... but ... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.... For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns ... his hearer’s mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it ... that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.”
—Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294)