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Ministers' were tackled over their plans to review sentencing guidelines at Commons question time this afternoon.
Conservative MP Angie Bray said many people held to the "rather old fashion notion" that justice shouldn't just be done, but should be seen to done.
And she warned many voters did not have a great deal of faith in community sentences, and called on ministers to demonstrate their importance.
Police minister Nick Herbert said making sure community sentences delivered tough punishment and were more effective at delivering rehabilitation would lead to "increasing confidence" in them as a form of punishment.
But former Labour police minister David Hanson asked how the new government would pay for more community sentences.
"If the minister is to increase community sentences, could he give an indication how much money he intends to transfer to the probation budget?" he asked.
And he questioned which under six-month sentences the Coalition felt were "inappropriate" given these were handed out to people convicted of assaulting police officers, abusing children, or committing domestic violence.
Home office minister Crispen Blunt said Hansen would have to wait for the sentencing review, but said the poor economic inheritance the Coalition had received meant tough decisions would have to be made.
He told Labour MPs that there was "no point in groaning" as it was a "fact of life" that the government had little money to play with.
Tory MP Mary McLeod said the reason a lot of young offenders were in the criminal justice system was down to a lack of a "solid education".
Justice secretary Ken Clarke said the government was undertaking an "important programme of educational reform" and said there was a need to stop young people needlessly being caught up in crime.
"We wish to look further outside for further experience how to best tackle reoffending, how best to tackle youth delinquency," he said.
And Graham Allen called on Clarke to "tackle the causes of crime as well as crime itself".
The Nottingham North MP said the "hard bitten head of homicide" in Glasgow had said given the choice between one hundred extra police officers and one hundred health visitors, he would choose the health visitors every time.
Allen urged Clarke to "will the means as well as the ends in tackling the causes of crime".
Clarke said that while he accepted the analysis of the problem, he had inherited a situation where he was not able to simply "wheel in more resources".
He added: "I do think one thing we should also look at is how we look across all government departments; health housing, employment and education at the same time as we consider policing, justice and imprisonment".
"The whole picture contributes to the broken society and tackling it will help contribute to less criminal society".
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