ABSTRACT
The Conclusion summarizes the two-tiered model of punishment that has been defended over the course of the book. According to the two-tiered model, the legislature enacts statutory prohibitions and corresponding penalties to preserve a just public order and promote the common good. Their decisions are informed by consequentialism, and their aim is to deter potential criminals and incapacitate actual criminals. The criminal judiciary determines the guilt or innocence of accused criminals and, if they are guilty, punishes them accordingly, within the statutory sentencing ranges. Their decisions are informed by retributivism, and their aim is to give offenders what they deserve. To establish a just system of legal punishment, there needs to be a division of intellectual labor, where social scientists empirically investigate how best to reduce criminal behaviors while also minimizing collateral social costs, and political philosophers investigate the normative principles of a just society. The Conclusion ends with a call for penal reform.
