While the surest safeguard for society is the removal of the personal and social causes of crime, it is Utopian to imagine that in New Zealand or anywhere else this will be wholly achieved. Setting this aside, the protection of society may be sought through reformation, deterrence, and prevention. These are the chief motives of punishment today. Some authorities, among whom was the jurist Salmond, would add retribution as a fourth purpose of punishment. Others deny that retribution or expiation is a proper object of human law and consider that punishment for punishment's sake is impermissible. There is, however, increasing recognition among penal thinkers that the related concept of reparation has an important role in the process of reformation.