"Do you punish people according to what they deserve?" Law professor Paul Robinson asked.
"Or do you punish people as a means of trying to avoid as much future crime as possible?"
About 30 students, faculty and community members gathered in Irvine Auditorium yesterday to learn about the issue of crime and punishment.
Robinson spoke about the topic of his most recent paper, which focused on whether giving people the punishment they "deserve" reduces crime.
One of Robinson's main points was that the benefit of a crime for the perpetrator may far outweigh the potential cost of committing that crime -- the punishment. In this case, deterrence takes a backseat to a criminal's intent.
The American Law Institute recently published a paper that Robinson believes will "change [the] punishment theory and foundations of the past 43 years."
Robinson said he agreed with the new theory, which put less of an emphasis on the idea of deterrence in punishment.
Deterrence refers to "when you punish somebody for the purpose of deterring everyone else" from committing the same crime, Robinson said, adding that deterrence has historically been a key component to most theories of criminal punishment.
To date, the lecture was the most well-attended of the Provost's Lecture Series, according to Interim Provost Peter Conn.
Conn said that the purpose of the lectures "is to give students, faculty and staff a chance to hear research from faculty members."
Second-year Law student Adam Pollock, who is currently in Robinson's class, said that the topic was "fascinating" and described his professor as "a treasure to have."
Robinson has had many years of experience in the criminal law profession, both in the courtroom and in the classroom. In addition to being named the Colin S. Diver Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn, he has served as a federal prosecutor and as counsel for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Law.
