Criminal Sanction and Deterrence

Abstract

This entry defines criminal sanctions by distinguishing them from civil sanctions, and briefly surveys the major categories of criminal sanctions, both ancient and new. The entry then outlines the primary social justifications for using such sanctions—focusing on deterrence as a distinct purpose of punishment—and describes a basic model of criminal offending to highlight the conditions under which the threat of criminal sanctions can influence offender behavior in predictable ways. Next explored are the implications for deterrence of the different types of criminal sanctions. A brief discussion of the suggestive conclusions emerging from related empirical evidence follows.