Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-7-2026
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Philosophy and Religion
First Advisor
Aaron Graham
Second Advisor
Kyle Fritz
Third Advisor
Ethan Davis
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The notion that punishment should “fit” the crime dates back to legal retribution’s origins. Retributivism posits that offenders deserve punishment matching the severity of their crimes, lending intuitive appeal over utilitarianism, which critics argue ignores moral wrongdoing by focusing solely on social benefits like reduced harm.
Yet Adam Kolber’s work exposes proportionality’s vagueness: it raises more problems and questions than it solves. In the first section of this paper, the concept of proportionality is explored in more depth. The second section, led by Kolber’s critiques, casts doubt on the stability of proportionality. Finally, in the third section, I propose a rule-utilitarian system as an alternative that preserves the fairness intuitions of proportionality without its pitfalls.
Recommended Citation
Kiihnl, Neely C., "The Proportionality Trap: Why Retributivism's Core Principle Falls Short" (2026). Honors Theses. 3551.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3551
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