There's a lot of difficulty in actually measuring the long-term effects of punishment and policy on society that gets breezed over when we are faced with a brut

There's a lot of difficulty in actually measuring the long-term effects of punishment and policy on society that gets breezed over when we are faced with a brute contrast between retribution and deterrence. It's fine to point out that branding criminals on the face created more repeat offenders, but most other effects are more subtle. I wish I could hear less ethics and more epistemology when the philosophers come to talk about justice.