Distributive Justice

Aristotle distinguished between two types of justice: distributive justice and corrective justice. Distributive justice concerns what measurement should be used to allocate society’s resources; for instance, this type of justice would include issues such as affirmative action, welfare, free schooling, and other goods and opportunities, and how society distributes them among its members.

Corrective justice concerns unfair advantage or undeserved harm between people. Justice demands remedies or compensations to the injured party. There is a connection between distributive justice and corrective justice. If it is true that socioeconomic status predicts criminal predisposition, should we care? Is it fair that poor people tend to end up in prison and those with more resources usually receive less punishment?