The Effectiveness of Criminal Punishment

Article 20 of the Fundamentals of Criminal Legislation, dealing with the purposes of punishment, states: "Punishment is not only a penalty inflicted for committing a crime, but also has the purpose of correcting and reeducating convicts in the spirit of an honorable attitude toward work, exact observance of the laws, and respect for the rules of the socialist community, and of preventing the perpetration of new crimes both by convicts and other persons." This definition of the purpose of punishment runs through all Soviet legislation like a red thread.