There are two conflicting approaches to the function of criminal law- a question that is at the bottom of much of the contemporary controversy about the uses of criminal law. At one end of the spectrum, there are what we may call the fundamentalists. To them the function of the criminal law is essentially that of the defender and protector of moral values. Generally, this approach goes together with the emphasis on guilt as the determining element of criminal behaviour, and with a retributive theory of punishment. It has, however, two aspects: one is the retribution, the revenge of society upon the criminal. The other is the atonement, the expiration of the criminal for the sins which he has committed against society.