Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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RETRIBUTISM

The view that people who commit a crime should be punished because they have done wrong. It takes on two forms, which in religious terms may be called expiatory and penal. A criminal, it is held, should expiate his or her disobedience of the law, and should suffer some penalty for the harm he or she has done to society.