RS17Crime and Punishment: Punishment, Forgiveness and the Death Penalty

Punishment is what happens to someone who breaks the law. The specification names three aims: retribution, deterrence and reformation.

• Retribution: paying the offender back so they get what they deserve. The Old Testament law ‘life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth’ (Exodus 21:23-25) limited revenge to a fair, equal penalty. The Qur’an also allows equal retaliation (qisas) but praises mercy (5:45).
• Deterrence: putting the offender and others off committing crime through fear of the punishment. Critics say many crimes are committed in anger or under the influence, without weighing up the risk.
• Reformation: helping the offender change so that they won’t offend again, through education, work and treatment. Christians often stress this, because they believe everyone can repent and change.
• Other aims: protection of the public (keeping dangerous people away) and reparation (the offender making up for the harm).
• Christianity: most Christians support punishment that is just and fair but also reforms the offender. Jesus quoted ‘an eye for an eye’ in order to reject revenge (Matthew 5:38-39), and Paul taught Christians not to take revenge but to leave it to God (Romans 12:19).
• Islam: Muslims stress justice. God ‘enjoineth justice and kindness’ (Qur’an 16:90, Pickthall’s translation), so punishment should be fair, but mercy, repentance and reform are also valued.
• Non-religious views: utilitarians judge punishment by its results: it should deter, protect and reform, causing no more suffering than needed.

Retribution looks back at the crime; deterrence and reformation look forward.

Punishment

A penalty given to someone for a crime or wrongdoing.

Retribution

An aim of punishment: getting your own back; making the offender pay for what they have done.

Deterrence

An aim of punishment: putting people off committing crimes.

Reformation

An aim of punishment: changing someone’s behaviour for the better, so they don’t offend again.

Reparation

Making up for harm done, for example by repairing damage or apologising.

Christianity and Islam both teach that wrongdoing should be punished fairly (justice), and that offenders should be treated with mercy. They balance these differently in different situations.

• Christian justice: Paul taught that rulers have authority from God to punish wrongdoers (Romans 13). Christians support a fair legal system and believe God is just.
• Christian mercy: Jesus taught love of enemies (Matthew 5:44) and that ‘an eye for an eye’ should give way to turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-39). Many Christians support restorative justice, where offenders meet their victims and make amends.
• Islamic justice: Shari’ah has three kinds of punishment: hadd (fixed penalties for a few serious crimes, needing very strong proof), qisas (equal retaliation for murder or injury) and ta’zir (penalties left to a judge’s discretion).
• Islamic mercy: the Qur’an allows the victim or their family to forgive the offender and accept compensation (diyah) instead of retaliation, calling this ‘an alleviation and a mercy from your Lord’ (2:178, Pickthall’s translation).
• Diversity: some Christians support strict punishment, including the death penalty; many Muslims stress mercy and reform. Avoid ‘Christians forgive, Muslims punish’.
• Non-religious views: many humanists support restorative justice and evidence-based sentencing that reduces reoffending.

Mercy

Showing kindness or forgiveness to an offender, often by giving a lighter punishment than they deserve.

Qisas

In Islamic law, equal retaliation for murder or injury, which the victim’s family may give up.

Diyah

In Islamic law, compensation (‘blood money’) paid to a victim’s family instead of retaliation.

Restorative justice

Bringing offenders and victims together so the offender understands the harm and makes amends.

Prison takes away an offender’s freedom. It is used for serious crimes, or when other punishments have failed.

• Aims it can meet: retribution (loss of freedom), deterrence, protection of the public, and reformation through education, work and treatment.
• Facts: there were 87,712 people in prison in England and Wales on 30 September 2026 (Ministry of Justice). About 3 in 10 adult offenders reoffend within a year (30.1%, October–December 2024 group), and reoffending is higher after short sentences.
• Recent change: the Sentencing Act 2026 means that, from 22 March 2026, sentences of 12 months or less in England and Wales are usually suspended (served in the community) unless there is a good reason not to.
• Christians and prison: most Christians accept prison as just, but want it to reform. Jesus said, ‘I was in prison and you came to me’ (Matthew 25:36, World English Bible), and Hebrews 13:3 says remember those in prison. Christians work as prison chaplains and volunteers, for example with Prison Fellowship. Elizabeth Fry, a Quaker, campaigned to improve conditions for women prisoners in the 1800s.
• Muslims and prison: most Muslims accept prison as a fair punishment that protects society. Muslim chaplains (imams) work in British prisons, supporting prisoners in prayer, repentance and reform.
• Criticisms: prisons can be overcrowded and a ‘school for crime’; it is expensive; families suffer. Some Christians and humanists argue for more community sentences and restorative justice.

Prison

A secure building where offenders are kept for a period as punishment.

Chaplain

A religious leader who works in a prison, hospital or other institution, supporting people of any faith or none.

Reoffending

Committing another crime after being punished.

Corporal punishment means punishing someone by causing them physical pain, for example by caning, flogging or smacking. It is not the same as capital punishment (the death penalty).

• UK law: courts in England and Wales stopped ordering corporal punishment in 1948. It was banned in state schools across the UK from 1987, and in private schools in England and Wales (1999), Scotland (2000) and Northern Ireland (2003). Smacking children is banned in Scotland (from 7 November 2020) and Wales (from 21 March 2022). In England and Northern Ireland, parents can still claim ‘reasonable punishment’ for a light smack (in England, Children Act 2004); in 2026 neither the UK government nor the Northern Ireland Assembly changed this.
• Some countries still use it as a court punishment, including some, but not most, Muslim-majority countries.
• Most Christians oppose it: it harms human dignity (everyone is made in God’s image), it treats people without love, and it doesn’t reform. Jesus taught non-violence and warned that ‘all those who take the sword will die by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52).
• A minority of Christians accept physical discipline of children by parents, pointing to Proverbs 13:24: ‘One who spares the rod hates his son’ (World English Bible). They see it as loving correction, not cruelty.
• Islam: Shari’ah sets fixed (hadd) penalties for a few crimes, some of them physical: the Qur’an names cutting off the hand for theft (5:38) and flogging for some other offences. Some Muslims see this as just, and even merciful, as the debt is paid in this life rather than the next.
• Many Muslims argue these penalties apply only in an Islamic state, with very strict proof, and that they are rarely appropriate today. British Muslims follow UK law, and many stress the Prophet Muhammad’s gentleness, especially with children.
• Non-religious views: most humanists oppose corporal punishment as a breach of human rights that teaches that violence solves problems.

Corporal and capital punishment in the UK

Corporal punishment

Punishing an offender by causing them physical pain.

Capital punishment

The death penalty: punishment by execution.

Hadd (hudud)

In Shari’ah, a fixed punishment for one of a small number of serious crimes, set out in the Qur’an or Sunnah.

Community service is unpaid work in the local community, such as clearing litter, removing graffiti or decorating a community centre. In England and Wales it is part of a community order, usually between 40 and 300 hours.

• Used for less serious offences, such as minor theft or vandalism, and often for first-time offenders. It isn’t used for murder.
• Aims: reformation (the offender keeps their job and family and learns skills), reparation (paying back the community) and some retribution (loss of free time).
• Christian support: it fits Christian ideas of repentance, making amends and a second chance, as Zacchaeus repaid those he had cheated (Luke 19:8).
• Muslim support: many Muslims support punishments that reform and repair harm, as long as justice is done for the victim.
• Criticisms: some people, religious or not, say it is a ‘soft option’ that doesn’t deter, and victims may feel justice hasn’t been done.

Community service

A punishment of unpaid work in the community, usually for minor crimes.

Community order

A sentence served in the community, which may include unpaid work, a curfew or treatment.

Forgiveness means letting go of blame and resentment towards someone who has wronged you, and showing them grace. It doesn’t mean pretending the wrong didn’t happen, or that there should be no punishment.

• The Lord’s Prayer: Christians ask God to forgive their sins as they forgive others (Matthew 6:12). Jesus added that if they forgive others, God will forgive them (Matthew 6:14-15).
• No limit: when Peter asked whether to forgive seven times, Jesus said ‘until seventy times seven’ (Matthew 18:22, World English Bible; some translations say seventy-seven times): there should be no limit.
• On the cross Jesus prayed, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34, World English Bible). Some Christians believe forgiveness should follow repentance: ‘if he repents, forgive him’ (Luke 17:3).
• A modern example: Gee Walker, a Christian, publicly forgave the young men who murdered her son Anthony in a racist attack in 2005, while supporting their prison sentences.
• Forgiveness and punishment can go together: most Christians believe an offender can be forgiven and still punished, because justice protects society and can reform. Catholics also receive God’s forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation (confession).
• Islam: Muslims believe God is the Forgiving and the Merciful, who ‘forgiveth all sins’ to those who turn back to him (Qur’an 39:53, Pickthall’s translation). Muslims should forgive too: ‘whosoever pardoneth and amendeth, his wage is the affair of Allah’ (42:40); ‘repel the evil deed with one which is better’ (41:34).
• The Prophet Muhammad’s example: when he returned to Makkah in 630 CE, he forgave many of the people who had persecuted the early Muslims. A victim’s family may also forgive a murderer and accept compensation (2:178).
• Shirk (associating partners with God) is the one sin the Qur’an says God won’t forgive if a person dies without repenting of it (4:48). Murder is not ‘unforgivable’ in Islam: God can forgive any sin that is truly repented of.
• Non-religious views: many people value forgiveness for the victim’s own peace of mind and for rebuilding relationships, for example through restorative justice.

Forgiveness

Showing grace and mercy and pardoning someone for what they have done wrong.

Repentance

Being truly sorry for wrongdoing and turning away from it.

Shirk

In Islam, the sin of associating anything with God; the one sin not forgiven if a person dies unrepentant.

The death penalty (capital punishment) is execution by the state as a punishment for a crime, usually murder.

• The UK: the death penalty for murder was suspended in 1965 and abolished permanently in 1969 (England, Wales and Scotland). It was abolished for all crimes in 1998.
• Wrongful executions helped change minds: Timothy Evans was hanged in 1950 and pardoned in 1966; Derek Bentley was hanged in 1953 and his conviction was quashed in 1998.
• Worldwide, 2025 (Amnesty International): at least 2,707 recorded executions in 17 countries, the most since 1981. This excludes China, which Amnesty believes executes thousands but keeps the figures secret.
• Where: Iran at least 2,159; Saudi Arabia at least 356; Yemen at least 51; the USA 47. At least 2,334 new death sentences were handed down in 48 countries.
• Abolition: 113 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and 145 have abolished it in law or in practice.

Amnesty International’s figures for 2025, published 18 May 2026

Death penalty

Capital punishment: a punishment in which a criminal is put to death by the state.

Abolitionist country

A country that has ended the death penalty in law, or in practice.

The specification names two ethical arguments. Each can be used for or against the death penalty.

• The principle of utility (Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill): an action is right if it brings the greatest good (or happiness) for the greatest number.
• Utility for: if executing murderers deters others or protects the public, the safety of many outweighs the death of one.
• Utility against: there is little clear evidence that the death penalty deters better than long prison sentences; executing an innocent person, and the suffering of families, cause great harm.
• Sanctity of life: the belief that human life is holy because God created it, so only God should end it.
• Sanctity against: if every life is sacred, even a murderer’s life should not be taken; execution also removes any chance to repent and reform.
• Sanctity for: some argue that because human life is sacred, murder deserves the most serious penalty: ‘Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image’ (Genesis 9:6, World English Bible).
• Other arguments: retribution and justice for victims’ families; the risk of mistakes; unfair use against poor people or minorities; the cost of long appeals; human rights (the right to life).

Both arguments point either way, depending on the evidence and beliefs used.

Principle of utility

The idea that the right action is the one that brings the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Sanctity of life

The belief that all life is holy because it is created by God.

The death penalty is one of Theme E’s three named issues. Views differ both within and between Christianity and Islam.

• John 8:7: Jesus told the men about to stone a woman that whoever was without sin should throw the first stone. Christians often use it against the death penalty. (The passage is missing from the earliest manuscripts, but it is in most Bibles.)
• Non-religious views: Amnesty International and most humanists oppose it as a breach of the right to life; some non-religious people support it for the worst murders, on grounds of retribution or protection.
• In Britain, it is illegal for all crimes, whatever an individual’s religious view.

Catechism

A summary of a church’s teaching. Paragraph 2267 of the Catholic Catechism has, since 2018, called the death penalty inadmissible.

Expiation

Making up for a sin; in Qur’an 5:45, forgiving a wrongdoer is expiation for the one who forgives.

On corporal punishment, the death penalty and forgiveness, you must be able to explain contrasting beliefs from Christianity (the main religious tradition of Great Britain) and at least one other religion.

• The 4-mark rule: if a question says ‘refer to the main religious tradition of Great Britain and one or more other religious traditions’, at least one of your two beliefs must be clearly Christian. Without one, the most you can score is 2.
• Two Christian beliefs are allowed (for example Catholic and a minority view), as long as one is Christian. Name the tradition when you can.
• Non-religious views earn nothing in 4- and 6-mark questions on these issues, but can support a 12-mark argument.

Main religious tradition of Great Britain

Christianity. AQA’s wording in 4-mark questions on the named issues.