ABSTRACT
The central issue regarding punishment is the moral justification of the practice. Not all practices or types of behaviour call for a moral justification. We do not need to justify playing sport, visiting friends or dancing. However, punishment requires a moral justification because it involves the intentional infliction of some type of harm and hence infringes upon an important concern or interest. As such, it is not dissimilar to activities such as slavery, abortion and euthanasia. Zimring and Hawkins note that:
Before evaluating the leading justificatory theories of punishment, the threshold issue of the nature of punishment is considered. The essential features of retributivism and the utilitarian theory of punishment are then examined. This is followed by an overview of the current state of the philosophical debate on punishment and then a consideration of how utilitarianism and retributivism sit with contemporary sentencing practices.
