Punishment’s severity must aim at future prevention, not past harm
Evidence
One must calculate a penalty in terms not of the crime, but of its possible repetition. One must take into account not the past offence, but the future disorder. Things must be so arranged that the malefactor can have neither any desire to repeat his offence, nor any possibility of having imitators. Punishment, then, will be an art of effects; rather than opposing the enormity of the penalty to the enormity of the crime, one must adjust to one another the two series that follow from the crime: its own effects and those of the penalty. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 152
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Feigned punishment could deter crime without real suffering — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 28; Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 46; Reform-era punishment was future-directed, aimed at prevention — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 204 (+6 more)
Related
- Reform-era punishment was future-directed, aimed at prevention (similarity 0.91)
- Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance (similarity 0.87)
- Punishment deters when its expected cost merely exceeds crime’s benefit (similarity 0.87)
- Penalty operates through the idea of pain, not pain itself (similarity 0.87)
- Reformers shifted punishment’s aim from expiation to prevention (similarity 0.85)
- The real target of punishment is potential offenders, not the convict himself (similarity 0.85)
- Reform punishment shifted example from sovereign display to economic obstacle (similarity 0.85)
- Penal reform aimed to increase punishment’s effects while lowering its costs. (similarity 0.84)
- Criminal punishment patterns lack deterrence or retributive logic (similarity 0.84)
- The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.83)
- Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension (similarity 0.82)
- Penal reform succeeded by managing illegalities differentially, not eliminating them (similarity 0.82)
- Raising penalty severity theoretically deters crime but complex systems prevent it (similarity 0.82)
- Punishment is designed to maximize apparent suffering while minimizing real pain. (similarity 0.82)
- Penal codes keep stable while the substance judged shifts from crime to offender (similarity 0.82)
Broader Connections
- Reform-era punishment was future-directed, aimed at prevention
#corroborates(0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 204 - Punishment scales with the unfairness of the wrongdoing, not with deterrence needs
#contradicts(0.85) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 103 - Reformers shifted punishment’s aim from expiation to prevention
#expands(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 204 - The real target of punishment is potential offenders, not the convict himself
#expands(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 177