Sentencing Discussion Group: Kinds of Punishment

Philosophers of criminal law who work within the retributive tradition have focused on the question of whether and how state punishment is justified.  This fixation is perfectly sensible; the fundamental problem remains unresolved.  These penal theorists have said relatively little, however, about the kinds or modes or types of punishment (I will use these terms interchangeably) that should be utilized.  What general principles govern how states should choose between the possible responses to culpable wrongdoing?  If my subsequent reasoning is sound, it is easy to understand why retributivists have tended to neglect this issue.  They have neglected it because they have little to contribute to its resolution.  Since I regard some version of retributivism as the dominant school of thought among contemporary penal theorists, it should not be surprising that legal philosophers have had so little to say about the modes of punishment to prefer.  In my paper I will support this conclusion and discuss a few of the somewhat controversial positions on which it rests.