“Ideology as a punishment” refers to how overarching belief systems, or ideologies, justify and shape the purpose and application of punishment within a society’s criminal justice system, influencing justifications like retribution (punishment is deserved), deterrence (discouraging future crime), rehabilitation (changing the offender), and incapacitation (removing the offender from society). These ideologies are influenced by dominant cultural, political, and religious views and can be either “forward-looking,” focused on future prevention, or “backward-looking,” focused on past offenses.Â