He only mentioned this because he thought it would get him less punishment.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The law barred "humiliating and degrading treatment" if a head teacher decided against exclusion and settled for a less severe punishment of taking a pupil away from his or her peer group, she said.

BBC: Violent pupil 'taught in isolation'

Under military law, nonjudicial punishment is a less severe form of punishment than prosecution.

FORBES: A Few Bad Men

As for the police, they take a less feverish view of recent punishment beatings than do media pundits or the anguished relatives of victims.

ECONOMIST: Northern Ireland

Like many recession-addled companies, they were charged with doing more with less and they felt the workshop was punishment for bad behavior.

FORBES: How to Eliminate Random Acts of Senseless Productivity

Hiroyuki Ishii, the rats under constant attack suffered less stress than the group receiving more lenient punishment.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 2.16.13: robo-rats, a young black hole and a computer that cannot crash

Lawmakers boasted of more efficient vehicles, less dependence on foreign oil, cleaner fuel sources and punishment for oil companies that dared to engage in price gouging.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The consultation focused on extending and reforming community sentences, including the use of curfews and tagging - but Mr Grayling is not keen on reducing the number of prison places, so maybe he's less keen on increasing the number of crimes for which community punishment is the default option.

BBC: Tough justice?

They taught me that punishment would not go away, but would be far less severe if I told the truth about what happened and how or why I veered off the charted course.

CNN: Real leaders don't 'double-down'

The decision to seek the death penalty came less than a week after a Colorado House committee narrowly voted to shelve a bill that would have abolished capital punishment in the state.

WSJ: Holmes to Face Death Penalty in Colorado Shooting