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Incapacitation and just deserts as motives for punishment
J M Darley1, K M Carlsmith, P H Robinson
1Department of Psychology, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544, USA. jdarley@princeton.edu
Law and Human Behavior
|December 6, 2000
Summary
People primarily seek punishment for intentional harms based on the severity of the offense, not future risk. This suggests a "just deserts" motive drives sentencing more than incapacitation.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Moral Psychology
- Legal Psychology
Background:
- Understanding the motivations behind punishment is crucial for legal and ethical frameworks.
- Two primary theories explain punitive desires: retribution (just deserts) and incapacitation (future harm prevention).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the primary motive for punishment is retribution or incapacitation.
- To examine how offense seriousness and future dangerousness influence punitive judgments.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with research participants.
- Participants assigned punishments to hypothetical actors whose offenses varied in moral seriousness and likelihood of future offenses.
Main Results:
- Punishment severity increased with offense seriousness.
- Punitive sentences were not significantly affected by the likelihood of future offenses.
- In cases where a brain tumor caused violent action, participants favored incapacitation over just deserts.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that the 'just deserts' motive is the primary driver of punishment for intentional harms.
- Incapacitation becomes a more prominent motive only when intentionality is questionable, such as in cases with biological causes.
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