Punishment can be defined as “the imposition of hardship in response to misconduct” with respect to the criminal justice system. There are five possible purposes of punishing criminals: incapacitation, deterrence, restitution, punishment and rehabilitation. The idea of ​​incapacitation is to get criminals off the streets and protect society. By physically removing the offender from the community, he would be prevented from committing future crimes against the public while serving a sentence. The deterrent approach dissuades people from engaging in illegal acts through the threat of punishment. If the criminal justice system increased the severity of punishment, there would be a reduction in the crime rate. Restitution is a form of punishment through which the offender pays the victim for the harm caused by the wrongful acts of the offender. Punishment involves the idea of ​​“letting the punishment fit the crime” and holds that because the criminal has harmed society, society has the right to inflict harm in return. The punitive rehabilitative approach aims to reform a convicted felon so that he or she can lead a productive and crime-free life. Kant's theory is an example of a deontological moral theory in which the rightness or wrongness of an action does not depend on the consequences but on whether it fulfills the duty. The moral value of an action is determined by the motive or reason behind the action. Kant's categorical imperative, a true rule in every circumstance and the basis of all other rules, comes in two versions: principle of universality and kingdom of ends. The principle of universality is defined as “acting only according to the maxim that a person can at the same time will it to become a...... middle of paper ......nces of an action, believe that these benefits cannot be achieved with less suffering or at a lower cost to those being punished. They want to prevent criminals from doing further harm and believe that it is not morally right to punish criminals to give them what they deserve. Punishment is justified only if it promotes general happiness according to utilitarianism. Furthermore, utilitarians would promote rehabilitation as the goal of punishment to reform and educate offenders to transform them into more productive members of society. Utilitarianism would believe that retribution is an unethical form of punishment because it produces no consequences with no benefit in mind. The main problem that utilitarians have with punishment is that although the offender suffers from the punishment, but without any compensatory benefit in terms of happiness.