Retribution
Definition
The view that punishment is justified because the offender deserves it, proportionate to the severity of the offence. A backward-looking justification: it looks to what was done, not to future consequences.
- Field
- Philosophy of punishment
- Orientation
- Backward-looking, desert-based
- Core principle
- Punishment proportionate to offence severity
- Contrasts with
- Forward-looking aims like deterrence and rehabilitation
Common questions
How does retribution differ practically from deterrence as a sentencing aim?+
A retributive sentence is set by the seriousness of the past offence regardless of its effect on future crime, whereas a deterrence-based sentence may be increased or decreased based on predicted impact on the offender or the public, even beyond what proportionality alone would justify.
Does retribution mean the same as revenge?+
No, retribution is typically defended as a principled, proportionate, and impartially administered response to wrongdoing through legal process, distinguished from revenge, which is personal, potentially disproportionate, and not bound by due process.
How is proportionality measured under a retributive approach?+
Proportionality is generally assessed against the harm caused and the offender's culpability, producing a sentencing range or tariff that scales with offence seriousness rather than a fixed formula applied identically across all offence types.
Related terms
- Denunciation
- The communicative function of punishment: the sentence expresses the community's collective moral condemnation of the act. Rooted in Durkheim's argument that punishment...
- Deterrence
- A forward-looking aim holding that the threat or experience of punishment discourages future offending. General deterrence targets potential offenders in the population;...
- Incapacitation
- The justification for imprisonment that focuses on preventing crime during the sentence by removing the offender from society, regardless of whether their...
- Proportionality
- The legal principle, central to European human rights law and to many constitutional systems, that any interference with a fundamental right must...
- Rehabilitation
- The aim of changing the offender's attitudes, skills, or circumstances so that they no longer offend. Rehabilitation treats offending as a problem...