oa Lagos Notes and Records - Romanus Egudu as a historical and virtuous poet

Abstract

The question of crime and punishment has been a subject of great controversy among moral philosophers and jurists. The fundamental questions here are: ""What is crime? What is punishment? What is the justification for punishment? How do we determine the appropriate penalty or punishment for crime(s)?"" Is punishment morally acceptable? Is punishment not vengeance or ""an eye for an eye?"" It is in an attempt to answer these questions and related ones that I venture to write this paper. I argue that punishment is a crime against the criminal.