What is the test for determining punitive damages in a personal injury case?

6. To consider the defendant's entire course of conduct in setting or reviewing a punitive damages award, even in an individual plaintiff's lawsuit, is not to punish the defendant for its conduct toward others. An enhanced punishment for recidivism does not directly punish the earlier offense; it is, rather, "`"a stiffened penalty for the last crime, which is considered to be an aggravated offense because a repetitive one."'" (Ewing v. California (2003) 538 U.S. 11, 25-26, 123 S.Ct. 1179, 155 L.Ed.2d 108.) In response to constitutional challenges to recidivist punishment, for example as ex post facto laws, "[t]he uniform answer has been that it is the second or subsequent offense which is punished, not the first." (People v. Biggs (1937) 9 Cal.2d 508, 512, 71 P.2d 214.) By placing the defendant's conduct on one occasion into the context of a business practice or policy, an individual plaintiff can demonstrate that the conduct toward him or her was more blameworthy and warrants a stronger penalty to deter continued or repeated conduct of the same nature.