How can the rationale for punishment specifically retribution seen as social cohesion?.?:
Wow, that's tough.  Is your assignment to argue that retribution is socially cohesive, or did you come up with this yourself?

This is what I can think of:

Retributive justice is based on the idea that criminals should be punished for undermining social "harmony" or "balance."  Therefore, we can't dole out retributive punishment before we first have a definition of what is social harmony or balance.  Social harmony and balance can be defined through laws, custom, or religion.  The PROCESS of defining social harmony and balance is socailly cohesive because, to some extent, we must generally agree on what the definition of social order is.  In other words, the PROCESS of accepting and agreeing on laws/customs/religion is socially cohesive.

The rehabilitation theory of punishment is probably the most socially cohesive because it is based on rehabiliting the criminal so that he can successfully reenter society.