Justifying Legal Punishment

Justifying Legal Punishment PDF Author: Igor Primoratz
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 159102983X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
While the philosophy of punishment is dominated by utilitarian and "mixed" theories, this study, written in the analytic tradition but also drawing on the views of Hegel, argues for a purely retributive view: all the main questions facing a theory of punishment are answered in terms of justice and desert, without any concessions to social expediency.

Justifying Legal Punishment

Justifying Legal Punishment PDF Author: Igor Primoratz
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 159102983X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
While the philosophy of punishment is dominated by utilitarian and "mixed" theories, this study, written in the analytic tradition but also drawing on the views of Hegel, argues for a purely retributive view: all the main questions facing a theory of punishment are answered in terms of justice and desert, without any concessions to social expediency.

The Problem of Punishment

The Problem of Punishment PDF Author: David Boonin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139470787
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In this book, David Boonin examines the problem of punishment, and particularly the problem of explaining why it is morally permissible for the state to treat those who break the law in ways that would be wrong to treat those who do not? Boonin argues that there is no satisfactory solution to this problem and that the practice of legal punishment should therefore be abolished. Providing a detailed account of the nature of punishment and the problems that it generates, he offers a comprehensive and critical survey of the various solutions that have been offered to the problem and concludes by considering victim restitution as an alternative to punishment. Written in a clear and accessible style, The Problem of Punishment will be of interest to anyone looking for a critical introduction to the subject as well as to those already familiar with it.

Punishment

Punishment PDF Author: A. John Simmons
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691241856
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
The problem of justifying legal punishment has been at the heart of legal and social philosophy from the very earliest recorded philosophical texts. However, despite several hundred years of debate, philosophers have not reached agreement about how legal punishment can be morally justified. That is the central issue addressed by the contributors to this volume. All of the essays collected here have been published in the highly respected journal Philosophy & Public Affairs. Taken together, they offer not only significant proposals for improving established theories of punishment and compelling arguments against long-held positions, but also ori-ginal and important answers to the question, "How is punishment to be justified?" Part I of this collection, "Justifications of Punishment," examines how any practice of punishment can be morally justified. Contributors include Jeffrie G. Murphy, Alan H. Goldman, Warren Quinn, C. S. Nino, and Jean Hampton. The papers in Part II, "Problems of Punishment," address more specific issues arising in established theories. The authors are Martha C. Nussbaum, Michael Davis, and A. John Simmons. In the final section, "Capital Punishment," contributors discuss the justifiability of capital punishment, one of the most debated philosophical topics of this century. Essayists include David A. Conway, Jeffrey H. Reiman, Stephen Nathanson, and Ernest van den Haag.

Justified Punishment

Justified Punishment PDF Author: Boeje Aagaard Kristensen
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 8743049761
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
Justified Punishment is the first published novel by the Scandinavian author from Denmark, Boeje Aagaard Kristensen. Boeje Aagaard Kristensen (born 1955) is a self-taught author. Born and growing up on a farm with all kinds of animals, wide acres and nature with forest and heath. As an adult he worked as a banker in Denmark and shortly in Germany and later as a financial advisor. On the side he bought and ran a farm with forest and production of Christmas trees. The farm was for many years also the home of himself, his wife and their two girls. In 2018 he published his first novel in Danish - Hvem slukkede lyset? - in 2023 translated into English with the title: Justified Punishment. The locations in the novel Justified Punishment are: a small community in the center of Jutland, Denmark, a county called Salling north of the town Skive also in Jutland, Aarhus - the largest city in Jutland, Sydney - Australia, and Fiji. Holger Danielsen said: "I think maybe somebody wants to hurt me, Daniel." Holger Danielsen felt he was in danger. Was there a connection between his past as a member of the resistance group during world war II, and the attempts to kill him? Or was he suffering from dementia, and the attempts to kill him were only in his own imagination? He felt helpless at the elder center, he had been brought to. He sent a letter to his son, Daniel, who after a personal tragedy had gone to Australia. But Daniel was in danger himself. A coincidental meeting with a local drug dealer - called Taipan - put him at risk. Taipan signed a contract on his life... Quotes: "Desperation, Daniel. Desperation and stress. Then you don't realize the consequences. And then what you choose to do in a desperate situation might turn out to be fatal for someone else." Using his right hand Daniel grabbed The Eel by the neck. "Do you read me, bastard? Are you ready to die?"

Desert, Retribution, and Torture

Desert, Retribution, and Torture PDF Author: Stephen Kershnar
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761821533
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
In general, there are two ways in which punishment is justified. Forward-looking justifications look to the good results that punishment brings about and that therefore occur after it. These results include the wrongdoer being deterred, incapacitated, or improved, as well as the deterrence of would-be wrongdoers, a decrease in costs associated with crime prevention, less fear in the community, and the promotion of hatred and disgust for actions that victimize others. In contrast, backward-looking justifications look to events that occurred before the punishment. On this approach, punishment is not justified via the good results that it brings about. The dominant backward-looking justification is retributivism. According to it, the wrongdoer in virtue of his past act deserves punishment and this desert justifies punishment. This book is an in-depth defense of retributivism. Since punitive desert lies at the heart of retributivism, it is important to provide an analysis of it. This is the focus of the first part of the book. I argue that punitive desert has to do with punishment being an intrinsically valuable event, where its value results from its standing in a certain relation to a person's having culpably performed a wrongdoing. I argue that this type of desert does not by itself contain moral duties to act in any way. In particular, it does not impose on someone the duty to punish a wrongdoer. This results in retributivism being more complex than the traditional accounts, since it must therefore involve duties that refer to but are not constituted by punitive desert. I also argue that punitive desert is independent of the wrongdoer's moral character and instead rests solely on a person's acts. Lastly, I argue that the value of punitive desert cannot be accounted for via more fundamental moral considerations. This results in punitive desert being a rather primitive moral notion in that it is not justified via more fundamental moral values. Like other intrinsically good things, e.g. friendship, and other intrinsically bad things, e.g. promise-breaking, punitive desert can be used to explain why certain states of affairs are both good and right.--Adapted from introduction.

The Limits of Blame

The Limits of Blame PDF Author: Erin I. Kelly
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674980778
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, Erin Kelly challenges the moralism behind harsh treatment of criminal offenders and calls into question our society’s commitment to mass incarceration. The Limits of Blame takes issue with a criminal justice system that aligns legal criteria of guilt with moral criteria of blameworthiness. Many incarcerated people do not meet the criteria of blameworthiness, even when they are guilty of crimes. Kelly underscores the problems of exaggerating what criminal guilt indicates, particularly when it is tied to the illusion that we know how long and in what ways criminals should suffer. Our practice of assigning blame has gone beyond a pragmatic need for protection and a moral need to repudiate harmful acts publicly. It represents a desire for retribution that normalizes excessive punishment. Appreciating the limits of moral blame critically undermines a commonplace rationale for long and brutal punishment practices. Kelly proposes that we abandon our culture of blame and aim at reducing serious crime rather than imposing retribution. Were we to refocus our perspective to fit the relevant moral circumstances and legal criteria, we could endorse a humane, appropriately limited, and more productive approach to criminal justice.

Honor and Revenge: A Theory of Punishment

Honor and Revenge: A Theory of Punishment PDF Author: Whitley R.P. Kaufman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400748450
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
This book addresses the problem of justifying the institution of criminal punishment. It examines the “paradox of retribution”: the fact that we cannot seem to reject the intuition that punishment is morally required, and yet we cannot (even after two thousand years of philosophical debate) find a morally legitimate basis for inflicting harm on wrongdoers. The book comes at a time when a new “abolitionist” movement has arisen, a movement that argues that we should give up the search for justification and accept that punishment is morally unjustifiable and should be discontinued immediately. This book, however, proposes a new approach to the retributive theory of punishment, arguing that it should be understood in its traditional formulation that has been long forgotten or dismissed: that punishment is essentially a defense of the honor of the victim. Properly understood, this can give us the possibility of a legitimate moral justification for the institution of punishment.​

Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment PDF Author: Hyman Gross
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199644713
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Presenting an engaging critique of current criminal justice practice in the UK and USA, this book introduces central questions of criminal law theory. It develops a forceful argument that the prevailing justifications for punishment are misguided, and have resulted in the systematic infliction of unnecessary human misery.

Rights Forfeiture and Punishment

Rights Forfeiture and Punishment PDF Author: Christopher Heath Wellman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019027476X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
In Rights Forfeiture and Punishment, Christopher Heath Wellman argues that those who seek to defend the moral permissibility of punishment should shift their focus from general justifying aims to moral side constraints. On Wellman's view, punishment is permissible just in case the wrongdoer has forfeited her right against punishment.

Punishment: the Supposed Justifications

Punishment: the Supposed Justifications PDF Author: Ted Honderich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Ted Honderich's "Punishment" is the best-known book on the justifications put forward for state punishment. This enlarged and developed edition brings his writing to a new audience. With new chapters on determinism and responsibility, plus a new conclusion, the book also remains true to its original realism about almost all talk of retribution and proportionality. Honderich investigates all the commonsensical notions of why and when punishment is morally necessary, engaging with the language of public debate by politicians and other public figures. Honderich then puts forward his own argument that punishment is legitimate when it is in accord with the principle of humanity. Written in a clear, sharp style and seasoned with a dry wit, this is the most important work on the reasoning behind our penal systems. It is a pleasure to read for philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Ted Honderich is Grote Professor Emeritus at University College London and author of numerous books on philosophy, including "After the Terror" (Edinburgh University Press, 2002), "How Free Are You?" (Oxford University Press, 2001), " Terrorism for Humanity" (Pluto Press, 2003) and "Conservatism" (Pluto Press, 2005). He is also the editor of the Oxford Companion to Philosophy.