This article addresses the theoretical difficulty of justifying the use of penal coercion in circumstances of marked, unjustified social inequality. The intuitive belief behind the text is that in such a context—that of an indecent State—justifying penal coercion becomes very problematic, particularly when directed against the most disfavored members of society.

This philosophical work on punishment includes coverage of retributivisms, moral education and reform, consequentialism and rights, sentencing and how to make the punishment fit the crime, abolitionism and sociological perspectives.