ABSTRACT
Though the retributive theory of punishment has enjoyed a startling revival, there seems to remain one decisive objection to it. The objection has been stated: “The retributivist’s difficulty is that he wants the crime itself to indicate the amount of punishment, which it cannot do unless people first assume a scale of crimes and penalties. The criminal law provides the central cases of punishment. A theory of punishment must come to terms with the criminal law or fail. What goes on in clubs, corporations, universities, and other associations of persons is relevant only insofar as close to the criminal law. What parents do with their children, owners with their pets, or the wind with the countryside, is at best peripheral. There is surprisingly little disagreement about what justifies the criminal law in general. A rational person would prefer the criminal law to any alternative method of social control.
