This chapter puts forward a conceptualisation of the sentencing judgment as setting the terms of future relationship with an offender. By drawing on the writings of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the author develops a reintegrative conception of state punishment and argues that a constitutionally legitimate proportionality assessment must be ‘bifocal’ – focused not just on the seriousness of the offending behaviour but also on the question what undergoing the punishment will mean for and do to the offender. The chapter is included in an edited collection on Criminal Law and the Authority of the State (edited by Antje du Bois-Pedain, Magnus Ulväng and Petter Asp; Hart/Bloomsbury, 2017).