Prevention and punishment cannot be separatedeasily and say which is better than the other. In my opinion, a balance betweenthe two is the most beneficial to society.Deterrence is to prevent offences by usingpunishments. This may seem odd to some people at first to think that punishmentis a type of prevention. There are two types of deterrence: specific deterrenceand general deterrence. Specific deterrence refers to the concept that bypunishing the individual who had committed an offence, it will prevent him fromdoing it again. On the other hand, general deterrence refers to the threateningto the public by the use of well-known punishments for committing an offence.Although the idea of deterrence is controversial and there are many people whodisagree with this concept, punishment is nevertheless an important part of oursociety. First, imagine if one day we wake up and it is announced that fromtoday on, there will not be punishment for theft, and what would happen? Oursociety will most likely go into chaos, with people going around the city andbreaking into our people's property. Then, imagine if there are no crimeprevention programs, which includes activities for youth, and what wouldhappen? There will most surely be an increase in the percentage of crimes,especially performed by youths. Most teenagers are at the stage of confusionand self awareness. If not enough guidance is provided, they might go into thewrong path.A society without prevention or punishmentwill most definitely go into chaos, so therefore both prevention and punishmentis crucial for the society to function normally.