The psychology of state punishment

A significant amount of punishment that happens in society is state punishment–that is, third-party punishment carried out by an organized political community in response to a rule violation.We argue that a complete psychology of punishment must consider state punishment as adistinct form. State punishment is a unique type of punishment because it is a special case ofthird-party punishment, pre-specified to occur after the violation of official rules and policies,carried out by people acting on behalf of a nation or government. State punishment, especiallyas compared to interpersonal punishment, is regarded as a legitimate form of violence, whichcommunicates not just disapproval, but information about procedures and power. Moreover,state punishment is made possible by state rules, which, unlike norms, are formalized, can befully articulated, and are perfectly transmissible across generations. We end the paper withimplications for the psychology of punishment more broadly, and future directions for betterunderstanding the unique psychology of state punishment.