NR Retributive Justice

• New Right

  Retributive justice = punishment fits the crime.

  • Criminals should be excluded and removed from society to protect others
  • Long prison sentences serve as a deterrent as it warns them of the consequences.
  • 'Prison works' because it both deters potential offenders and takes criminals out of circulation.
• Clarke (on Retributive Justice)


  The cost must outweigh the benefits so long sentences are effective deterrents.
• 3 Strikes (Retributive Justice)

  'Three strikes and you're out' = three separate convictions results in an automatic life sentence.

  • Led to the quadrupling of the US prison population since the 1990s
  • Right wing politicians in favour of the return of capital punishment as it reduces the prison population and cost of incarceration whilst still acting as a deterrent.
• Criticism of Retributive Justice

  70% of people who have been to prison return = recidivism

  • USA has the second highest levels of incarceration in the world and still have the lethal injection yet still has the highest levels of crime.
• Braithwaite (Criticism of Retributive Justice)


  RJ is 'disintegrative shaming' as it stigmatises the individual and separates them from society.

  • Community based punishment for lower level crimes should be used - calls this 'reintegrate shaming'
  • Studies show ex-prisoners have difficulties in re-integrating due to the 'criminal' label