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Utilitarian Rationale For Punishment Essay

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Punishment as defined by J.M. Pollock is an excruciating or unlikable practice imposed upon a person in response to a violation of a rule or law by an individual or individuals who has the legal authority to do so (Pollock, 2014). Nearly everyone would have the same opinion that causing harm to someone or subjecting them to some form of pain is just wrong and immoral. Nevertheless, punishment by definition, engages inflicting pain as a punishment as being necessarily poles apart from inflicting pain on innocents, and as a result this is not intrinsically wide of the mark. There is also a group who believed that punishment is a wrong if accepted merely if the end result is for the greater good (Pollock, n.d.). Retribution is balancing a wrong through punishment, but revenge is …show more content…
Utilitarian or utilitarianism philosophy is, what is good is that which benefits “the many”. This is true even if it is painful for the individual as long as the majority is benefiting from a certain act, then it is defined as good. The utilitarian rationale for punishment, believes that punishment is evil, but if it brings about more good than evil, then there is a justification for the punishment. But, a different utilitarian proposed that there are some cases when the benefit of punishment is not more important than evil (Pollock, n.d.). Utilitarian rationale for punishment had a starting point which is the social contract. And just as a retribution rationale for punishment, social contract give the right to society to punish so do utilitarian rationale for punishment; not because the offender was disobedient but to protect each and everyone in society from any future harm. This approach of punishment is seen by utilitarian as a means to and end, the end being a deterrence, incapacitation, or rehabilitation (Pollock,

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