Retributive justice
Retributive justice is a theory of criminal justice wherein harsh punishments, often indistinguishable in practice from simple revenge, are justified on the grounds that the offender did something similar to his or her victim(s). The phrase 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' is a commonly heard justification for this theory. Punishment is expected to act as a deterrent.
In practice, punishment has this effect only indirectly. Many long-term studies in many countries, including China, U.S.A., and in the Islamic World and South Africa, have shown that, for instance, death penalty measures do not deter murder. Furthermore, longer sentences do not deter crime nor reduce recidivism, other than a brief respite while the offenders are actually imprisoned. Some exploit this limited idea of success to argue for tough justice measures, e.g. "three strikes you're out", which often deal out very long prison sentences in an attempt to keep the offenders off the street longer, and thus to reduce the long term crime rate. Critics charge this can lead to a form of carceral state where huge numbers of people are imprisoned or, at best, on parole.
However, this too seems not to reduce crime, as the crowded prison conditions and desocialization of inmates seem to make it all but impossible for any education, training or rehabilitation to occur, so that the inmate could find productive work in society after release. California presently is attempting to solve the problem by simply keeping all three-time repeat offenders in prison until they die. In China, as part of the strike hard program, minor criminals are shot, and the bill for the bullet sent to their families. However, crime rates in both have remained roughly the same.
Alternatives to retributive measures include psychiatric imprisonment, restorative justice and transformative justice. They are discussed more in those articles. A general overview of criminal justice puts each of these ideals in context.
See also: sociology of crime