It is to be remembered that under our system of government, each of us has surrendered up to the state our natural right to revenge ourselves or our families for wrongs done. Punishment, because of our "social contract," might only be meted out by the state and only then after a formal proceeding conducted with due regard to constitutional safeguards. We have become especially sensitive to the state and its processes in respect to punishing a citizen. This sensitivity is traceable back to the times of the Star Chamber.5 The fact of the matter is that the criminal law, in years past and yet today in parts of the world, has been used as an efficient engine for the purposes of political and religious prosecution. I quote Roscoe Pound:

"It is an inherent difficulty in the administration of punitive justice that criminal law has a much closer connection with politics than has the law of civil relations. There is no great danger of oppression through civil litigation. There is constant fear of oppression through the criminal law. Not only is one class suspicious of attempts by another to force its ideas upon the community under penalty of prosecution, but the power of a majority to visit with punishment practices which a strong minority consider in no way objectionable is liable to abuse and, whether rightly or wrongly used, puts a strain upon criminal law and administration."6