The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 4: Deterrence 
Page 1: Think Twice

The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Criminal Law (with pictures!)

Part 4: “Don’t Do That Again!”

NARRATOR

Rehabilitation is the “enlightened” purpose of punishment—for what that’s worth. It’s great when it HAPPENS, but most of the time rehabilitation is either unnecessary or unrealistic. Also, it’s not really what most people THINK of as the purpose of punishment.

If you were to ask a thoughtful person WHY we punish criminals, he would be more likely to say something like:

Average Joe looking thoughtful

AVERAGE JOE

To teach them a lesson…

…and so others think twice before doing the same thing.

[NOTE: These chapters were originally posted as long single pages on Tumblr. When they were republished here on this site, they were broken into smaller pages for easier reading and discussion.]