* Maintaining social order and public safety: This is arguably the most fundamental purpose. Criminal law defines acts that threaten society's well-being and establishes punishments to deter such behavior and protect citizens from harm.
* Protecting individuals and their rights: While focused on society as a whole, criminal law also protects individual rights from violation through crimes like assault, theft, and fraud.
* Punishing offenders: This involves retribution for wrongdoing, holding offenders accountable for their actions, and expressing society's condemnation of their behavior.
* Rehabilitating offenders: While punishment is a key element, many modern criminal justice systems also aim to rehabilitate offenders through programs and interventions designed to reduce recidivism and help them reintegrate into society.
* Deterrence: Criminal law aims to deter both the offender from committing further crimes (specific deterrence) and others from committing similar crimes (general deterrence) through the threat of punishment.
* Incapacitation: For particularly dangerous offenders, imprisonment serves to incapacitate them, removing their ability to commit further crimes against society.
* Restoring victims: Criminal law increasingly incorporates mechanisms to provide restitution or compensation to victims of crime, addressing the harms they have suffered.
It's important to note that the relative emphasis on these different purposes can vary across jurisdictions and even within different schools of thought on criminal justice. However, these aims generally represent the core objectives of criminal law.