Definition

• Crime control, rehabilitation and due process are some of the perspectives on how a justice system achieves its goal of being fair and just. How a judge distributes money in a civil case or imposes a sentence on someone who has violated criminal laws is influenced by the judge's view of how she is to perform her job. The distributive justice perspective relies on equality and merit to distribute compensation to a party in a civil case and punishment to violators of criminal laws.
  
  

Distribution of Rewards

• Distributive justice views fairness as giving each person what he deserves based upon what the person has done to earn it. Two people putting forth the same effort will be rewarded equally. If the effort is not equal, then the distribution will reflect this. A judge holding a distributive justice perspective distributes money in a civil case based on what the party "earned" due to the injuries or damages suffered. Persons with the same types of injuries are to be rewarded or compensated in the same manner.
  
  

Distribution of Punishment

• Distributive justice punishes a wrongdoer in a criminal case because she earned it by committing a criminal act. Equality is preserved by imposing the same sentence on all those who commit the same crime under same circumstances. The discretion a judge has in selecting sentencing options must be limited to achieve this equality. This discretion is accomplished through mandatory sentencing guidelines imposing limits on the choices judges have available to them.
  
  

Criticism of Distributive Justice

• Distributive justice does not take into consideration that some members of society may have a greater need than others, although their injuries may be the same. Sentencing in criminal cases does not make rehabilitation of the wrongdoer or compensation for the victim primary concerns.