 Retributive justice has a deep grip on the punitive intuitions of most people. Nevertheless, it has been subject to wide-ranging criticism. Arguably the most worrisome criticism is that theoretical accounts of why wrongdoers positively deserve hard treatment are inadequate. If they are inadequate, then retributive justice provides an incomplete theory of punishment, one that at most explains why wrongdoers deserve censure. Even the idea that wrongdoers forfeit the right not to be suffer proportional hard treatment might be better explained by appeal to other explanations of why hard treatment (1) is instrumentally valuable, and (2) is consistent with respect for the wrongdoer.