PrepTest 105 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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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

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

The author expresses the main point at the end, where he proposes that the retributive rationale for punishing criminals is actually grounded in the social-benefit rationale: “In this way the second rationale can be seen as grounded in the first and its retributive nature disappears. Thus it seems that even our so-called intuitive notions of the appropriateness of punishments have their basis in the concept of benefit.”

Of the two ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████

"The retributivist rationale can be shown to be more fundamental" is false. It is antisupported. Author tries to reframe the retributivist rationale in terms of the social-benefit rationale.

Although social benefit ███████ ██ ██ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ███████████ █████████████ ██████████

"Although social benefit appears to be a reasonable rationale" is the wrong positioning to take on the social-benefit rationale. It's setting up the rest of the claim to say something negative about it. That can't be the main point.

Because the retributivist █████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███████████████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █ ███ ████ ███ ██████████████ █████████ ███████

"Retributivist rationale... is able to support our intuitions... in a way that the social-benefit rationale cannot." That can't be the main point. The main point favors the social-benefit rationale.

Because the rationale ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ █ ████████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ████████ █ ██████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████

"Punishment of a criminal can be justified only if it produces a social benefit that outweighs the harm it brings to the criminal" is unsupported. Swap out the "only if" for "if" and (D) would be supported but still not the main point.

Although it appears ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████

The "it" refers to "the rationale that punishments ought to fit crimes," which is a reference to the retributivist rationale. (E) correctly characterizes that rationale as grounded in the concept of benefit.

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PrepTest 105 - Section 3 - Passage 2 - Question 8

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