section_path: Criminal law/Criminal justice/Corrections and punishment
section_name: Corrections and punishment
paragraph_text: Corrections and punishment
  
  Authorities may respond to crime through corrections, carrying out punishment as a means to censure the criminal act. Punishment is generally reserved for serious offenses. Individuals regularly engage in activity that could be scrutinized under criminal law but are deemed inconsequential. Retributive justice seeks to create a system of accountability and punish criminals in a way that knowingly causes suffering. This may arise out of a feeling that criminals deserve to suffer and that punishment should exist for its own sake. The existence of punishment also creates an effect of deterrence that discourages criminal action for fear of punishment.
  
  Rehabilitation seeks to understand and mitigate the causes of a criminal's unlawful action to prevent recidivism. Different criminological theories propose different methods of rehabilitation, including strengthening social networks, reducing poverty, influencing values, and providing therapy for physical and mental ailments. Rehabilitative programs may include counseling or vocational education.
  
  Developed nations are less likely to use physical punishments. Instead, they will impose financial penalties or imprisonment. In places with widespread corruption or limited rule of law, crime may be punished extralegally through mob rule and lynching.
  
  Whether a crime can be resolved through financial compensation varies depending on the culture and the specific context of the crime. Historically, many societies have absolved acts of homicide through compensation to the victim's relatives.