If punishment is not an effective deterrent (and there is ample empirical research showing it is not) and if it is not an effective means of prevention (and the record number of offenders incarcerated proves it is not), what useful purpose does it serve? What is society getting in return for the billions of dollars being wasted on punishing wrongdoers? The conclusion is inevitably the same: there has to be another and better way of dealing with those who break the law.
What is the alternative? Restorative justice.
Restorative justice: society's steady march towards a civilized justice paradigm, paperback/Ezzat A. Fattah
