This is a process of learning, not of punishment. Now this is one of the best parts of the Craft. Each group, called a coven or circle, makes its own rules and cares for its own members. In spite of the high profile Witches you find from time to time, none is recognized by all of the Witch community. Often those who are most public, are considered too opportunistic and commercial by many other Witches.
Witchcraft is a personal faith.
Witches by and large, believe that one should follow a faith and not a leader. Every object, animate or inanimate, is part of the whole. To harm anything with malice is to harm a part of yourself. Each thing has a spark of the divine. This is the law that says that all that you do, either good or bad, will return to you three-fold.