Positive retributivism, or simply “retributivism”, involves both positive and negative desert claims. The positive desert claim holds that wrongdoers morally deserve punishment for their wrongful acts (see section 4.6 for a discussion of the deontic and consequentialist dimensions of this). This claim comes in stronger and weaker versions. For example, Michael Moore (1997: 87) writes: “Retributivism … is the view that punishment is justified by the desert of the offender”. Jeffrie Murphy (2007: 11) is more pluralistic, writing: “[A] retributivist is a person who believes that the primary jus...