Consequentialist Concerns about the Criminal Law

Abstract This chapter addresses the worry that the costs of the criminal law might outweigh the benefits, all things considered. It starts by examining the costs of the criminal law, focusing on punishment. It then describes the benefits of the criminal law, and points out that the need for something like the criminal law is strong and that there is no clear reason to think the alternatives would produce a better balance of benefits over costs. Finally, it addresses three possible confusions: that the criminal law aims at stigmatizing the convicted (that common view is rejected), that retributivism makes the criminal law especially harmful (the empirical basis for that claim is questioned), and that the problems with prisons call for the abolition of punishment (they call only for prison reform).