On Using and Abusing Those We Punish

Many people think that legal punishment is morally justified because it can deter certain kinds of bad behavior. Critics of this justification often object that legally punishing people for this purpose uses them in a morally objectionable way. In this paper, I defend an especially challenging version of the use objection. I also defend a variant of it - the abuse objection - that applies to deterrence justifications that are designed to evade the use objection. And I give reasons to doubt that advocates of deterrence justifications can overcome both objections.