Is restitution to victims better for society than jail sentences for criminals? Let’s look through this simple question piece by piece. What is restitution to victims? Basically, a restitution can be given to a victim by an offender if the offender hurts or does something illegal to the victim. So, lets say that a guy steals from somebody and is caught. The offender (the guy who stole from the victim) has to pay back the victim (the guy who was stolen from) what he stole, sometimes even more than what he stole. That is an example of restitution to victims. What is jail sentences for criminals? I think that is pretty self-explanatory. Let’s say that a guy steals from another guy and instead of paying restitution to the victim, he goes to jail for a specific amount of time based on what he’s done. That is an example of jail sentences for criminals.

Now, which is better for society? Is the offender paying back the victim what the offender did to the victim? Or is it better for the victim to go to jail for a specific time? I will say a little bit about each of these, and make my decision then.

If the offender payed back the victim what the offender did to the victim, the victim may benefit from getting payed back, but the offender does not learn anything. The offender will just keep harming people in some way, but he does not learn anything. Why? Because the offender is not punished. If the offender is not punished, the offender does not learn anything and will just keep doing it. Now, it may help that one person whom the offender payed back (or not), but in the long run, it does not help society.

Now, if the offender harms a guy, and does not have to pay restitution, but instead goes to jail, that may be a little better for society. Again, why? Well, if a guy harms someone else, and does not pay restitution but instead goes to jail, he learns from being in jail, that what he did was wrong, and he should not do it again (or at least some people think that, others just go back to there evil ways once they get back out of jail), and once he gets out, he never does it again. He learned because he was punished. Now, the victim may not benefit, but the society definitely will.

Now, which is better for the society, restitution to victims or jail sentences for criminals? I think that jail sentences for criminals is ultimately better for the society, however, if both of these were used, the offender had to pay restitution to the victim and he had to go to jail, then the society would be better and everyone would benefit, except for the offender, of course.

And that is my full answer to the simple question “Is restitution to victims better for society than jail sentences for criminals?”