Incapacitate

One of the primary goals of punishment is to physically prevent a person from committing a criminal offense. The most well-known form of incapacitation is incarceration or imprisonment. People who have been confined to correctional facilities have been incapacitated by virtue of their confinement. Incarceration is not the only way to incapacitate criminal offenders. Electronic monitoring, where offenders are subject to active or passive monitoring of their whereabouts; house arrest, where offenders are forbidden from leaving their homes except as specified by the court; and day reporting, where offenders must report each day to a community corrections center, are all alternative forms of incapacitation. Civil commitment is also a form of incapacitation used for those who are a danger to themselves or to others. Historically and in other cultures, castration and amputation have also been used to incapacitate offenders.