Why Punish?

Abstract

Three ways of understanding the question ‘Why punish?’ are distinguished. Answers commonly invoke three purposes and justifications – that punishment is the way to reduce offending, that it rights the wrong, and that it vindicates the victim. All these accounts are challenged. There is particular attention to the concept of rehabilitation and an explication of what this analysis entails for the work of probation. It is concluded that there is a need to develop a broader philosophy of responding to wrongdoing with attention to the implementation of punishment and to the ‘end state’ where the wrongful act may be considered resolved.