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The second relates to the severity of punishment; how severe the punishment is for a particular crime may influence behavior if the potential offender concludes that the punishment is so severe, it is not worth the risk of getting caught. An underlying principle of deterrence is that it is utilitarian or forward-looking.
The definition requires that punishment is only determined after the fact by the reduction in behavior; if the offending behavior of the subject does not decrease, it is not considered punishment. There is some conflation of punishment and aversives, though an aversion that does not decrease behavior is not considered punishment in psychology.
While utilitarianists may slightly disagree on why the evil of punishment can be justified, authors agree that the purpose of punishment is to reduce crime. This purpose directly relates to the principle of distribution of utilitarianism. Most utilitarianists agree that there are three ways to reduce crime: incapacitation, deterrence and reform.
Therefore, voters should insist that calls for increased punishment be replaced by programs that can actually reduce crime, help victims, and increase public safety.
Retributive justice is a legal concept whereby the criminal offender receives punishment proportional or similar to the crime.As opposed to revenge, retribution—and thus retributive justice—is not personal, is directed only at wrongdoing, has inherent limits, involves no pleasure at the suffering of others (i.e., schadenfreude, sadism), and employs procedural standards.
The Criminal Code contains several offences related to driving a motor vehicle, including driving while impaired or with a blood alcohol count greater than eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood (".08"), [3] impaired or .08 driving causing bodily harm or death, [4] dangerous driving (including dangerous driving causing bodily harm or death), [5] and street racing. [6]
Therefore, in a rational system, the punishment system must be graduated so that the punishment more closely matches the crime. Punishment is not retribution or revenge because that is morally deficient: the hangman is paying the murder the compliment of imitation. Bentham's ideas strengthened the principles behind the prison system.
Opponents of mandatory sentencing argue that it is the proper role of a judge, not a prosecutor, to apply discretion given the particular facts of a case (e.g., whether a drug defendant was a kingpin or low-level participant, or whether sex offender registration is an appropriate measure for a given crime and offender).