Two standard lines of justifying punishment that are separated by the time span that they look to Leads to a better life among people consequentialist argument Long term justification assuming benefits will accrue in the future Criminals deserve to be justified Retributivist argument Short term justification Consequentialist Leads to deterrence Incapacitation Rehabilitation Take these people off the streets The criminal and those looking at the criminal both look at the punishment as unpleasant Change mode of thinking of person looks to the crime as a part of the past as opposed to fear of punishment in the future deterrence Don t just change the criminals incentive but change the criminal himself If the goal is to deter other people then does it really matter whether a person is guilty or innocent Retributivist Desert If you commit a crime you deserve to be punished charged with advocating useless suffering cid 127 What if the way to deter people the best is far worse than the crime warrants People should be deterred up to the point where it is actually effective in making a change The hard part of assessing punishment is that it may often not think about a person s reasons for doing things or excuses Bentham is a hedonistic utilitarian pushes for pleasure and the absence of pain Bentham argues there are four circumstances that warrant no punishment cid 127 Groundless In the case that no harm is done or that someone has chosen to accept the consequences In the case that harm is done if the good outweighs the harm then punishment is not warranted For example if a doctor were break a person s ribs giving CPR to save their life cid 127 When punishment commits more harm than it prevents or has a cost that is too high for what good is done If a person is insane intoxicated or lack maturity and cannot grasp the reason for punishment Crime committed under circumstances under which the threat of punishment would not be enough Such as if a person is threatened with their life to commit a crime or the well being of their life and those around them Unprofitable Inefficacious Needless Punishing people for things that need not necessarily harm others For example marijuana laws who is harming others when they smoke Bentham of how much punishment is warranted You should punish enough so that the expected benefit of committing the crime is less than the expected cost of committing the crime Penalties that are not severe enough are worse than no penalties The penalties should not be more severe than is necessary because those that are not deterred will suffer more than they have to The magnitude of the required penalty will have to vary with the attractiveness of the crime and the certainty of detection the harder it is to apprehend and convict criminals the higher the penalty of the crime needed to deter it In order for a punishment to be justified the person must know that punishment is a threat Punishment for Bentham has to work by deterring other people from committing the same crime Some charges that may arise form Bentham are thus cid 127 Why we shouldn t punish people who have an excuse punishment would not deter people Bentham would put cases like this under the realm where punishment would be inefficacious cause if a person has an excuse then the threat of cid 127 Why shouldn t we punish the innocent since the point of punishment under Bentham is to set an example for others not to follow Utilitarianism is not just an ideology for the actions of individuals but for the ideal system as well Bentham calls us to punish those who are guilty and only those who are guilty in order to follow the rules of the system Punishment is not just a factor of the criminal s state but also of the crime itself cid 127 Morris is a retributivist in that he does believe that punishment is something that a criminal has coming Bentham does assert that people are responsible moral agents cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127