Details

Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Many people are of the opinion that putting criminals in prison is not severe enough as a form of punishment. Others, however, believe that imprisonment is one of the most effective ways of punishing wrong-doers.

What is your opinion on that? Which one do you think is more effective in terms of punishing criminals?  

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Model Answer 1:
‘Crime and punishment’ is rooted in the very fabric of our history and society. The rules that drive the society are meant to be obeyed and breaking them is considered as crimes and hence the society has made an arrangement to punish the offenders to maintain the peace among us. The modern concept of country is based on the primitive society people used to live in and every country has its own sets of laws for people to abide by. Many people consider prison, which was invented as part of our journey towards modernizations, as a proper place for the criminals while others opine that more severe punishment is a better alternative to maintaining the peace in a country.  I believe that prison is the most effective way of punishing wrong-doers.

First of all, putting criminals in prisons for their violation of laws was not invented in a day. That came to our society with the pace of time and from the need of a way to punish the wrong-doers. Hence this is an already proven way to punish the criminals and introducing a more efficient way would not be that easy.

Secondly, not all crimes and background of criminals are same and thus imprisonment for different time length is very much justified. For instance, someone who broke a law for the first time and a recurring offender should not be punished in the same way even though their nature or crimes is same. Here the imprisonment for various sentences could be an ideal punishment.

Thirdly, capital punishment like death sentence is too inhuman and the goal of our judicial system and law is to reform the society not to kill the criminals. The prison as a punishment offers plenty of opportunities to the offenders to remorse and become good citizens. Thus considering the true purpose of our law and order, imprisonment is the best possible punishing arrangement. Some might argue that we should hang a killer instead of letting him live in the prison. But my point of view contradicts with them as I believe that killing a murderer would make us no less than a murderer. We would be guilty of the same crime he has committed. What punishment could be crueller that letting the criminal rot in a jail alone and remorse every single moment of his life thinking about the heinous act he has done?

Finally, severe and cruel punishment systems were mostly invented by criminals themselves, especially during the wars. Following those methods to punish a wrongdoer is not justified at all. Our aim is to make the world a better place to live in while not showing mercy to the people who harm others or break the law and hence imprisonment is the best possible form of punishment in my view.

To draw the conclusion, the imprisonment is the best way to punish the criminals while maintaining the peace in the society and letting the wrong-doers remorse and become a better person in the future.

• Prev
• Next