ABSTRACT
Incapacitation has long been used as a justification for punishment, and its use can be traced to early forms of physical punishments, such as banishment, and to the use of prisons either as places of detention or punishment. Rooted in classical theory and in utilitarianism, incapacitation is a forward-looking justification for punishment that operates to prevent further crimes from being committed by the offender. The focus of incapacitation is the removal of the offender from society in order to prevent repeat offences; it is not concerned with why the offender committed the crimes or with trying to address any reasons for offending. Fundamentally, incapacitation has been used to selectively incapacitate those offenders who are deemed, in their various ways, to be dangerous or pose a risk or threat to wider society. While incapacitation as an aim for punishment is most effective in the use of the death penalty, predicting the dangerousness or risk of reoffending remains a challenge.
