Is Punishment Necessary? Penal Abolitionism and Impure Restitution

The institution of legal punishment, according to penal abolitionists, should be abandoned. But can we do without it? In this paper, I tackle this question and provide a tentative positive answer. Drawing on evidence from the social sciences, I argue that legal punishment has been crucial to enable cooperation in large-scale societies, but this does not mean that it is indispensable for this end today, as alternatives are available. I support this claim by defending one of such alternatives, namely pure restitution, from several crippling objections. My defense of restitution modifies the underlying theory, making it considerably less pure in a sense I shall specify, but also more promising as a potential alternative to legal punishment.