Running Head: Retribution Favored Over All 1
Punishment Philosophy
Retribution Favored Over
All Derek Davis
Liberty University
Retribution Favored Over All 2
Punishment Philosophy: Retribution Favored Over All
When thinking about punishment, many people couple it with committing crime and
think nothing more than that, and few understand the purpose of punishment. “Punishments vary
in their underlying philosophy and form. Major punishment philosophies include retribution,
deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and restoration.” (Miethe & Lu, 2005). Each of these
philosophies is unique in that they each focus on a particular necessity that the public would
benefit from, while remaining independent of the other philosophies. Coupling punishment with
committing crime and understanding the purpose of punishment proves that the philosophies
each provide a different level of satisfaction for a victim and the society and that retribution is
the most preferred.
Retribution is punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act.
“Retributive theory is limited, both in theory and practice, and in many of its versions is best
conceived not as a theory of punishment in its own right, but instead as shorthand for a set of
constraints on the exercise of punishment” (Flanders, 2014). It is one of the more fundamental
forms of punishment as it is illustrated in the Bible when Moses writes “eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Exodus 21:24, NIV). This philosophy is an adequate one
because it allows an offender to learn how it feels to be the victim and how the decision to wrong
someone affects that person. There are times, however, when this philosophy is not going to be
sufficient because in situations where the victim is unable to be the recipient of the retribution,
the expectancy for the offender to receive the punishment is not there. An example of this is
