The real target of punishment is potential offenders, not the convict himself

Evidence

For punishment is directed above all at others, at all the potentially guilty. So these obstacle-signs that are gradually engraved in the representation of the condemned man must therefore circulate rapidly and widely; they must be accepted and redistributed by all; they must shape the discourse that each individual has with others and by which crime is forbidden to all by all – the true coin that is substituted in people’s minds for the false profits of crime. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 177

Categorization

• XREF: The audience-shift of punishment (punishing the audience, not the punished) parallels later surveillance-theory claims that the panoptic effect works on all potential subjects, and resonates with Bentham. — connects to: Feigned punishment could deter crime without real suffering — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 28; Penitentiary technique judges the criminal’s affinity with crime, not the act itself — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 388; Punishment’s severity must aim at future prevention, not past harm — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 152 (+4 more)

Related

• Punishment deters when its expected cost merely exceeds crime’s benefit (similarity 0.86)
• Punishment’s severity must aim at future prevention, not past harm (similarity 0.85)
• Penalty operates through the idea of pain, not pain itself (similarity 0.81)
• Penitentiary technique judges the criminal’s affinity with crime, not the act itself (similarity 0.81)
• Feigned punishment could deter crime without real suffering (similarity 0.80)
• Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension (similarity 0.80)
• The respectful ‘humanity’ of the criminal became the target of correction (similarity 0.80)
• Punishment’s primary audience is the non-criminal public, not the offender (similarity 0.80)
• Apparent punishment outweighs real suffering whenever the innocent outnumber the punished. (similarity 0.80)
• Certainty, not severity, makes punishment deter because it fixes crime-punishment links in minds (similarity 0.79)
• Punishment is designed to maximize apparent suffering while minimizing real pain. (similarity 0.79)
• Punishment doubled into an object relation producing the criminal as a known individual (similarity 0.78)
• Criminal punishment patterns lack deterrence or retributive logic (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Punishment scales with the unfairness of the wrongdoing, not with deterrence needs #contradicts (0.82) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 103
• A degrading-treatment violation required actual punishment, not merely its credible threat #qualifies (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 9212