Editing Punishment (section)

==History and rationale==
[[File:US incarceration timeline-clean.svg|thumb|[[Incarceration in the United States|U.S. incarceration]] timeline]]

=== Seriousness of a crime; punishment that fits the crime ===
{{main|Retributive justice|Eye for an eye}}
{{see also|Felony|Misdemeanor}}
A principle often mentioned with respect to the degree of punishment to be meted out is that the punishment should match the crime.<ref>''Doing Justice – The Choice of Punishments'', A Vonhirsch, 1976, p. 220
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''Criminology'', Larry J. Siegel
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[https://www.jstor.org/pss/1372651 "An Economic Analysis of the Criminal Law as Preference-Shaping Policy"], ''Duke Law Journal'', Feb 1990, Vol. 1, Kenneth Dau-Schmidt
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One standard for measurement is the degree to which a crime affects others or society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=David |first=Wood |date=2002 |title=Retribution, Crime Reduction and the Justification of Punishment. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3600555. |journal=Oxford Journal of Legal Studies |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=301–321|jstor=3600555 }}</ref> Measurements of the [[degree of seriousness]] of a crime have been developed.<ref name=OSS>{{cite journal | last1 = Lynch | first1 = James P. | last2 = Danner | first2 = Mona J.E. | year = 1993| title = Offense Seriousness Scaling: An Alternative to Scenario Methods | journal = Journal of Quantitative Criminology | volume = 9 | issue = 3| pages = 309–22 | doi = 10.1007/BF01064464 | s2cid = 144528020 }}</ref>
A [[felony]] is generally considered to be a crime of "high [[seriousness]]", while a [[misdemeanor]] is not.