Punishing Fairly

Philosophers tend to think of the problem of punishment as being the problem of demonstrating that it is or can be justified. Settling the question of whether punishment is justified as a practice, however, does not answer the practical questions of when and how punishment is justified in particular cases, nor does it tell us whether some other response to lawbreaking is preferable or complementary to punishment. There are, in fact, a variety of problems associated with punishment, and I attend to four of them in this chapter in order to demonstrate the reach and power of fair-play theory. Two of them—the problems of excessive incarceration and of voting rights for felons—are much-discussed matters in recent years. The other two—the problems of assessing punishment for recidivists and of what role restitution should play in the sentencing of offenders—are also matters of both practical and philosophical interest.