T HE belief that harsh punishment will eliminate or at least reduce crime from society is misplaced and associated with eighteenth century reformist classicist criminology. There are at least two drawbacks with this approach.

First, in order for the punishment to be ef fective, it needs to be certain. Just increasing it is not entirely helpful. In f act, it may be unnecessary. The greatest curb on crime is not the cruelty of punishment, but its certainty. Most of ten than not the shortcomings in Pakistan`s criminal justice system means that those who commit a crime go unpunished.

The system of policing in the country is archaic and the force unprofessional, reducing the probability that a criminal will be apprehended and punished. Even if they are caught, the inefficient working of courts particularly the subordinate judiciary leads to perennial delays in deciding cases.

Second, crime may not always be a rational act; it may be propelled by f actors that override logical consideration, and perhaps over which the individual has nocontrol. So, the approach to fight crime should be broad. If the aim is to totally eliminate criminal behaviour from society, then the underlying social and economic causes must be tackled.

Adverse circumstances --poverty, deprivation or unemployment-influence individuals to commit a crime.

Contemporary Pakistani society suf fers from a wide range of these inequalities in a wide range such as housing, education, health, income.

To curb crime, our lawmakers need to reform the criminal justice system and make policies that improve the social and economic conditions of the poor.

Enhancing punishment is no deterrent.

Saad Khosa Islamabad