# Have punishment and incarceration become too intermingled? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 2, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-punishment-and-incarceration-become-too-intermingled/576981 "2011-04-02T23:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-punishment-and-incarceration-become-too-intermingled/576981/1 "2011-04-02T23:07:25Z")
Avoiding a hijack of [this thread towards the end](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=602022&page=2): I think society is served by punishment for crimes by alleviating people’s desire for revenge. I think incarceration is meant to protect society from continued criminal activity. To me, both concepts are important, but we often seem to combine the two, and lose the distinction. Am I off base here? ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-punishment-and-incarceration-become-too-intermingled/576981/2 "2011-04-02T23:14:57Z")
There are a number of things to consider when deciding how to treat a convicted criminal: Punishment: penalty for violating norms. Even if we know for certain that someone will not re-offend we have to do this to show that society does not accept certain behaviors and they have consequences. Personal Deterrence: stop them from doing it again because of the consequences they faced. General Deterrence: stopping others from committing the crime. Public Safety: locking them away so they can not commit more crimes. Rehabilitation: changing their behavior so they will not re-offend. I am sure there are others as well.