This chapter evaluates the doctrine (‘positive general prevention’) that punishment can be justified by its contribution to intilling in a population proper respect for norms, such that there is less wrongdoing in future. The point of evaluating this doctrine is to show certain inflations that tend to pervade monistic (single-value) theories of punishment, and hence to strengthen the hand of pluralistic (many-value) alternatives. In particular, the chapter argues that positive general prevention is compatible with the Kantian imperatives on which so-called ‘retributive’ punishment is sometimes said to be based. It also argues that the two are compatible as part of the same justification, such that neither should be demoted to a mere side-effect.
Keywords: crime prevention, retribution, responsibility,