ABSTRACT
The task of describing the penal measures of a society, and the aims which these are intended to achieve, should be attempted with as much scientific objectivity and detachment as the task of describing its offenders. Our assumptions about the nature of both crime and punishment tend to be so deeply ingrained that we are apt either to overlook them completely or, if we notice them, to treat them as axiomatic. A feature of almost all penal systems, both primitive and sophisticated, is that once a penalty has been ordered for an individual offender it tends to be regarded as irrevocable. The greatest differences, however, between primitive and sophisticated systems are to be observed in the penal measures themselves and can be found both in the aims of the measures and the techniques used to achieve them. One of the least sophisticated reactions to offensive behaviour is the infliction of loss or suffering on the offender.
