ABSTRACT
Retributivism is perhaps the most familiar and most misunderstood theory of punishment. It is important to note that retributivism is not vengeance, nor is it any one single position. Retributivism is a rich, venerable tradition with a variety of supporters who each defend different retributivist variations. Desert and proportionality form the conceptual core of most retributivist theories. Retributivists claim that criminals deserve punishment in proportion to their crime. There are many senses in which persons may be said to deserve something. Retributivist punishments are sometimes misunderstood as a form of vengeance. Desert is something we possess in degrees and some criminals will be more deserving of punishment than others. The problem is ascertaining the amount of punishment a person deserves. Most crimes are both illegal acts and widely considered to be immoral. In order to impose retributivist punishments, people must ascertain the moral responsibility of criminals with some certainty.
