Alternatives of Criminal Punishment in the Islamic Society

Abstract

In the past few years, some theories and thoughts were developed to reconsider prison as an institution for rehabilitation. That was after many studies have proved that the extreme effort exerted in prisons usually results in a complete failure. The author of this research presents different categories of crimes in the Islamic Laws, filing cases and reinforcing punishments, and talks about compensation in the range of Islamic punishments and reprehensions, whether this compensation (indemnification) is for the whole society or for a person. The issue of wergild and compensation in crimes of attempted murder, un-attempted murder or murder by mistake, as well as the wergild of a fetus and the properties of each is then discussed. Another broached topic is compensation and wergild in different types of crimes committed against anything other than the soul, their categories, the punishments of injuries and the properties of each of them. The author starts with forgiveness, when it is allowed, and when it is not, forgiveness of the victim, punishments of ejection, forgiveness in castigation, as well as forgiving the wergild and reprehension that are considered rights and laws in Latin communities and laws in public democracies. In the end, the research discusses the relation between reconciliation and punishment, along with reconciliations in different types of crimes.