On Judgement

What punishments are appropriate for which crimes? Is an eye for an eye the way to go? Really, what is punishment? Cause... and effect. While Pangloss's (Leibnitz's) philosophy was no doubt flawed, he did have one thing right; he knew that "there is no effect without cause." Punishment is supposedly just one of the effects that our actions have caused, the part that comes back to us. Some times, the effect is obvious. Throw a ball at a wall with the intent of damaging the wall, and it bounces back and hits you in the face, that bloody nose is your punishment. But in society, we have chosen to deem people worthy of determining other people's punishments. Since humans have to deliberate for so long to determine the appropriate effect for a man's crime, how can we be sure that their punishment is truly an effect of their actions? Sadly, I do not have an answer to this question. I do know, as did the old lady traveling with Candide and his beloved (I confess I just don't know how to spell her name), that everyone has experienced hardships, and that most of us believe ourselves to be undeserving of such cruel treatment. To the receiver of punishment, the penalties always seem outrageous. But to the disciplinarian, they deserve what they got and then some. So really, as people, we are all to subjective to judge the appropriateness of a given punishment from either end.