ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 and 2 we looked at accounts of punishment that were either exclusively backward-looking or exclusively forward-looking. Neither approach it seems can justify the practice of punishment. In each case, the central reason is similar. Each approach lacks what the other offers. Backward-looking accounts fail because they are unable to accommodate the widespread belief that unless inflicting pain can be shown to have beneficial consequences it is immoral. Forward-looking accounts are unable to acknowledge that punishment should, as a matter of moral principle, be inflicted only on those genuinely guilty of an offence and should vary in proportion to the seriousness of the offence committed.
