IntroductionThe author is a strong proponent of the idea that "punishment in the name of deterrence is justified", and this is because people tend to to obey the law after having calculated the consequences attached to it. the law to a particular criminal act. Punishing a person for a crime in order to deter others from committing the same crime does not guarantee that that crime will never be committed by anyone, but it does significantly reduce the number of people who would commit the same crime in the future . In some cases, deterrence has not proven effective in suppressing crime and for hardened criminals, it fails to deter them from committing the crime a second time. For these people, the severity of the punishment must be so intense that it teaches them a lesson, that is, why the severity of the punishment varies from crime to crime and from situation to situation. 'other. By punishing the offender, we deter him from committing the crime again in the future. Furthermore, “deterrence theory emphasizes the need to protect society, to treat the prisoner in a way that deters others from breaking the law.” break the law. For example, if a news channel highlights that the police detected many cases of drunk driving last night, then it is very likely that a common man would be afraid of driving after being drunk. Here, the certainty of being penalized is what prevents a man from committing a crime. When the sentence is penalizing, it deters others and constitutes a safeguard for society. Deterrence in almost all criminal laws of the world is conceived as the most prudent punishment...... middle of paper ......sea, John Austin on punishment; http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679829.001.0001/acprof-9780199679829-chapter-3 ; accessed on 19-03-101421. Anthony F. Lang Jr., Punishment, Justice and International Relations: Ethics and Order after the Cold War, Routledge, 2009; http://books.google.co.in/books?id=fXvkrzBsr-AC&dq=kelsen++punishment&source=gbs_navlinks_s ; accessed on 19-03-101422. Hans Kelsen, Collective and Individual Responsibility in International Law, Particularly with Respect to the Punishment of War Criminals, 31 Cal. L. Rev.530 (1943); http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/californialawreview/vol31/iss5/3; accessed on 19-03-101423. George A. Thoma (1981), A Note on John Stuart Mill's Views on Capital Punishment. Bulletin of the History of Economics Society, 3, pp 49-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1042771600004890; consulted on 19-03-1014