The Religious Basis of the Retributive Approach to Punishment

THE RELIGIOUS BASIS OF THE RETRIBUTIVE APPROACH TO PUNISHMENT K CENTLY THE pros and cons of our prison system and our modes of punishment have been seriously questioned. Evidence seems to indicate that our current modes of punishing have little deterrent effect. When confronted with this fact the man on the street will usually react in one of two ways. Either he will insist that our mode of punishment does deter, or he will say that, even if punishment does not deter, we must still punish because a criminal deserves to suffer since he has committed a moral wrong and it is just that he be punished. This position has been termed the " retributive " approach to punishment. It is apparent that the retributive approach has wide appeal in the United States today , for otherwise it is inconceivable that we would continue to punish in spite of the lack of evidence of its deterrent effect. Given the fact that the retributive justification of punishment appears to be popular it is of utmost importance to make explicit the following positions which it must assume. First, the retributive approach must of necessity view the state as having a moral obligation with regard to punishment (i.e., the state must see to it that justice be done). Secondly, it must assume that what is just can be known. That is to say, it must assume that we know it is just that the criminal suffer for the evil he has done. These basic popularly held ideas did not simply arise among us. This article attempts to analyze how it is that many Americans hold these ideas. Specifically, I shall attempt to indicate how the retributive idea of punishment and its concomitant assumption is born out of Western religious notions. Although secular retributivists give apparently secular arguments to back up their approach, their arguments really stem 5~8 THE RETRIBUTIVE APPROACH TO PUNISHMENT 5~9 from a basically Western religious approach to punishmentspecifically , that it is just that the criminal suffer and that the state should see to it that this religious or moral " duty" is done. The Old and New Testaments made the retributive idea of punishment the accepted rationale for punishment throughout the ancient and Medieval world, but the biblical conception of punishment continues even today to strongly influence the Western Mind. The original rationale for the retributive approach derived from religious ideas of rewards and punishments meted out by God. The basis of the biblical idea of punishment is that there is a Divine Justice in the world, that God will punish evil doers because they are wicked, as he will reward the righteous because of their righteousness. Thus the Bible says, "The righteous shall rejoice when he sees vengeance ... So that a Man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth." 1 " As thou has done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head." 2 " For I will not justify the wicked." 8 " And I will visit upon the world their evil and upon the wicked their iniquity." 4 "And thou art full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold on them." 5 God " will render to every man according to his works ... to them that obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulations and anguish upon every man that doeth evil." 6 Whereas both the Old and the New Testaments consider Divine punishment of the wicked as one of the primary pillars of Divine Justice in this world, the New Testament and later Christian thought are more terrifying in their emphasis on torture of the wicked in an existence after death: "The fear1 Psalms 58:10-11. • Obadiah 1:5. 3 Exodus 23:7. • Isaiah 13: II. 6 Job 36:17. 8 Romans 2:8. See also Psalms 1:6, 94:12, 9:18, 37:28, 145: 20; Proverbs 10: 27; II Chronicles 6:23; Isaiah 11:4. 530 CHANA KASACHKOFF POUPKO ful . . the abominable and murderers . . . shall have their past in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." 7 " The Son of Man will...