Purposes of punishment: Effects of utilities of criminal sanctions on perceived appropriateness.

Five commonly discussed purposes of punishment (incapacitation, retribution or just deserts, rehabilitation, general deterrence, and special deterrence) were examined in two experiments (using college students and six district judges). The experiments were designed to study how the perceived usefulness or utility of penalties in serving these purposes changes with seriousness and type of crime, and how these perceived utilities affect judgments...