Feuerbach, a German scholar of modern criminal law, is the main representative who advocates the view of the purpose of general preventive punishment after Beccaria and Bentham. Feuerbach explained the psychological basis of penalty deterrence in theory with his famous theory of psychological compulsion. Feuerbach believes that everyone has the psychology of pursuing advantages and avoiding disadvantages, which is the psychological motivation for people to do all their actions. Criminals commit crimes because criminal acts can bring him some joy; And if there is an inevitable result after committing a crime that can make the criminal suffer more pain than the pleasure of committing a crime, the criminal will give up the idea of committing a crime. Punishment is such a pain for criminals. Every criminal must choose between the pleasure of committing a crime and the pain of punishment before committing a crime. As long as punishment may bring him enough pain, he will not choose to commit a crime. If we understand Feuerbach's theory of psychological coercion from the perspective of criminal law and criminal psychology, we can understand that punishment is the most severe coercive measure imposed on criminals based on deprivation of pain, and punishment is the essential attribute of punishment. The fear and deterrent effect of punishment on social psychology and personal psychology has formed people's psychology and thinking mode of escaping crime. In other words, the punitive and compulsory nature of punishment inhibits the formation of people's criminal ideas and the imitation of criminal acts.