Why people punish

Many people say that they believe in punishing criminals only to deter further offenses, but a study of people’s decisions as mock jurors overwhelmingly suggests that they would punish lawbreakers for the purpose of retribution.

“What’s fascinating is that people don’t seem to know why they punish,” says Kevin Carlsmith of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. Scientists call the main categories of punishment utilitarian, for deterring crime, and retributive, for making a criminal suffer.