Utilitarian and retributive positions of legal punishment can be coherently combined, although they have two competing views. One's confusion will disappear once they realize that both justifications for punishment seems to present what both sides want to say. Retributivism insists that no man can be punished unless he is guilty of breaking the law. Utilitarian's agree that punishment should only be inflicted for breaking the law, however they're focus is justifying the punishment with the good of society. To explain this simply, try to view retributivists as judges, and utilitarians as legislators. Although they hold different offices, duties and goals, they all work under the system of rules that make up criminal law. Legislators (utilitarianism)
