ABSTRACT
This is not to say that punishment is never justifiable as reformative; but it is questionable, on utilitarian grounds, whether the reformative benefits alone of the institution would justify it. ii. Prevention. Similarly, though we should not regard it as the main purpose of punishment to prevent crime by removing or otherwise disabling the potential criminal, this aim is recognized, in long terms of 'preventive detention' for hardened criminals, and in sentences of transportation and deportation. The death penalty is thought by some to be similarly justified. It is clear, however, that the case for punishment as prevention is convincing only for criminals with several convictions; for in other cases we are not entitled to assume that the offender would repeat his crime.
