Retributive justice

A theory of justice holding that wrongdoing deserves proportionate punishment. It justifies punishment because an offense was committed, rather than solely to prevent future harm.

Desert (philosophy): The idea that people can merit benefits or burdens because of their actions or qualities. Retributive justice treats deserved punishment as a response to wrongdoing.
Consequentialism: The ethical view that actions are judged by the consequences they produce. Retribution grounds punishment in desert, not only in its future effects.
Lex talionis: The principle that a response to wrongdoing should correspond to the harm inflicted. Its proportionality ideal influenced later accounts of deserved punishment.
Criminal sentencing: The legal process of determining penalties for people convicted of crimes. Sentencing is where proportional desert is translated into a concrete penalty.
Proportionality (law): The principle that a legal measure should be proportionate to the aim or offense it addresses. Punishment must match the seriousness of the crime under retributive accounts.
Utilitarianism: An ethical theory that judges actions by their contribution to overall welfare or happiness. A utilitarian may punish to deter or incapacitate, even when desert points elsewhere.
Immanuel Kant: An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose ethics emphasizes duty, autonomy, and respect for persons. Kant argued that criminal punishment must be imposed because of the crime, not as a means to other ends.
Just deserts model: A sentencing approach that sets penalties according to offense seriousness and offender blameworthiness. It applies retributive reasoning directly to sentencing policy.
Culpability: The degree to which a person is blameworthy for a wrongful act. Retribution assigns punishment according to the offender’s responsibility for the offense.
Deterrence: The prevention of harmful conduct by making its expected costs salient. Deterrence justifies punishment by its expected influence on future behavior.

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