PT105.S3.P2.Q10 > Analytics

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Many of us can conceive of penalties that seem disproportionate to the crimes they are intended to punish. ███

Intro Topic · Concept of punishment that fits the crime

Examples · of disproportionate punishment

Probation for murder is too light and long prison sentence for shoplifting is too severe.

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Question · Where do our intuitions about the appropriateness of punishments come from?

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Potential Answer · Two rationales for punishment

First Rationale · Social-benefit

Punishment is justified because society benefits from deterring would be criminals.

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Second (Controversial) Rationale · Retribution

Punishment is not justified by benefit to society. Instead, punishment is justified by the severity of the crime; what is appropriate or just.

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Problem · with social-benefit rationale

The societal benefit of deterrence can sometimes justify punishments that intuitively feel too severe. Example of shoplifter punishment.

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Solution · retribution is the better rationale

The concept of appropriateness (absent in social-benefit rationale) is what accounts for the intuition of proportionality in punishment. It's not about beneficial punishment. It's about just punishment.

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Critique of and Alternate Solution · Intuition can be justified with social-benefit rationale

The retributivist notions of appropriateness, proportionality, and justice can be reframed as balancing benefit to society against cost to the individual.

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Actual Answer / Main Point · The retributivist intuitions are grounded in social-benefit rationale

Passage Style

Single position

10.

Based on the passage, the ████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████

Question Type

Author’s attitude

Implied

To understand the meaning of this phrase, it’s important to understand what the “retributivist rationale” is. This is described in P2: “The second rationale is that a punishment is justified by the severity of the crime, independent of any benefit to society.” In P4, the author makes the point that if we view the retributivist rationale in terms of balancing societal benefit against harm to the criminal, then the “retributive” nature disappears. In other words, the idea that punishment is justified by severity of the crime, without any regard to benefit to society, is no longer a principle underlying the level of punishment.

equating social benefit ████ ████ ██ █████████

Anti-supported, because the retribution rationale is independent of any benefit to society, at least before the author makes the point that its grounded in the social-benefit rationale. In addition, (A) isn’t supported by the author’s point at the end, because the author never suggests that “social benefit” and “harm to criminals” is equal. Rather, we balance benefit to society against harm to the criminal.

14%

regarding punishment as █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████

This captures the meaning of “retributive nature” as expressed by this line.

78%

support for sentences ████████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████

Anti-supported, because the retributive rationale actually allows for proportionality between punishments and crimes.

belief that any ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████

Anti-supported, because this actually describes the social-benefit rationale, not the retributivist rationale.

favoring harsher sentences ████ ████ ███████ ████

The retributivist rationale doesn’t inherently favor harsher sentences over more lenient ones; what matters is proportionality to the crime.

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