NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Retributive justice

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See also: Wikibooks:Social Deviance
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Retributive justice maintains that proportionate punishment is a morally acceptable response to crime, regardless of whether the punishment causes any tangible benefits. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. ... Penology (from the Latin poena, punishment) comprises penitentiary science: that concerned with the processes devised and adopted for the punishment, repression, and prevention of crime, and the treatment of prisoners. ... Anomie, in contemporary English, means a condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values. ... In criminology, Differential Association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. ... Deviant redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Labelling be merged into this article or section. ... In criminology, the Rational Choice Theory adopts a Utilitarian belief that man is a reasoning actor who weighs means and ends, costs and benefits, and makes a rational choice. ... In criminology, Social Control Theory as represented in the work of Travis Hirschi fits into the Positivist School, Neo-Classical School, and, later, Right Realism. ... In criminology, the Social Disorganization Theory was one of the most important theories developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. ... In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966) developed the Social Learning Theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e. ... In criminology, the Strain Theories state that social structures within society may encourage citizens to commit crime. ... In criminology, Subcultural Theory emerged from the work of the Chicago School on gangs and developed into a set of theories arguing that certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attitudes that are conducive to crime and violence. ... Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ... Victimology is the study of why certain people are victims of crime and how lifestyles affect the chances that a certain person will fall victim to a crime. ... In criminology, blue-collar crime is any crime committed by an individual from a lower social class as opposed to white-collar crime which is associated with crime committed by individuals of a higher social class. ... In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes either committed by a corporation, i. ... Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. ... Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. ... In the standard sense of the phrase, a political crime is an action deemed illegal by a government in order to control real or imagined threats to its survival, at the expense of a range of human rights and freedoms. ... In criminology public order crime is defined by Siegel (2004) as ...crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently, i. ... In criminology, public order crime case law in the United States is essential to understanding how the courts interpret the policy of laws where the moral and social order of the state appears to be threatened by clearly identified behavior. ... In criminology, state crime is activity or failures to act that break the states own criminal law or public international law. ... In criminology, the concept of state-corporate crime refers to crimes that result from the relationship between the policies of the state and the policies and practices of commercial corporations. ... Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime or incorporated governance has been defined by Edwin Sutherland ...as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. ... Victimless crime has the following applications: A victimless crime is one in which the victim is the accused. ... Deterrence is a theory of justice whereby the aim of punishment is to prevent or deter future mischief. ... Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system. ... Prisoner abuse is the mistreatment of persons while they are under arrest or incarcerated. ... The movement for Prisoners rights is based on the principle that prisoners, even though they are deprived of liberty, are still entitled to basic human rights. ... This theory of punishment is based on the notion that punishment is to be inflicted on a offender so as to reform him, or rehabilitate him so as to make his re-integration into society easier. ... Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior. ... Utilitarianism (1861), see Utilitarianism (book). ...

In ethics and law, "Let the punishment fit the crime" is the principle that the severity of penalty for a misdeed or wrongdoing should be reasonable and proportional to the severity of the infraction. The concept is common to most cultures throughout the world. Its presence in the ancient Jewish culture is shown by its inclusion in the law of Moses, specifically in Deuteronomy 19:17-21, which includes the punishments of "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Contrarily, the U.S. Constitution includes a ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." Many other documents reflect this value in the world's cultures. However, the judgment of whether a punishment is appropriately severe can vary greatly between cultures and individuals. The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Torah, (×ª×•×¨×”) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or especially law. It primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakhâ€“the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five Books of Moses, but can also be used in the general sense to also include both the Written... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme...

Proportionality requires that the level of punishment be scaled relative to the severity of the offending behaviour. However, this does not mean that the punishment has to be equivalent to the crime. A retributive system must punish severe crime more harshly than minor crime, but retributivists differ about how harsh or soft the system should be overall.

Traditionally, philosophers of punishment have contrasted retributivism with utilitarianism. For utilitarians, punishment is forward-looking, justified by a purported ability to achieve future social benefits, such as crime reduction. For retributionists, punishment is backward-looking, and strictly for punishing crimes according to their severity.^[1]

Depending on the retributivist, the crime's level of severity might be determined by the amount of harm, unfair advantage or moral imbalance the crime caused.

1 History
2 Subtypes
3 Criticism
4 Alternatives
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 Further reading

History

In the early period of all systems of law the redress of wrongs takes precedence over the enforcement of contract rights, and a rough sense of justice demands the infliction of proportionate loss and pain on the aggressor as he has inflicted on his victim. Hence the prominence of the "lex talionis" in ancient law. The Bible is no exception: in its oldest form it included the "lex talionis," the law of "measure for measure" (this is only the literal translation of middah ke-neged middah). â€œTalionâ€ redirects here. ...

In the 19th century, philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote in The Metaphysical Elements of Justice of retribution as a legal principle: "Judicial punishment can never be used merely as a means to promote some other good for the criminal himself or for civil society, but instead it must in all cases be imposed on him only on the ground that he has committed a crime."^[2] A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... â€œKantâ€ redirects here. ...

Immanuel Kant regards punishment as a matter of justice. He states that if the guilty are not punished, justice is not done. (Rachels, James 2007) " The Elements of Moral Philosophy".

Subtypes

There are two distinct "flavors" of retributive justice. The classical definition embraces the idea that the amount of punishment must be proportional to the amount of harm caused by the offence. A more recent version, advocated by Michael Davis, dismisses this idea and replaces it with the idea that the amount of punishment must be proportional to the amount of unfair advantage gained by the wrongdoer. Davis introduced this version of retributive justice in the early 1980s, at a time when retributive justice was making a resurgence within the philosophy of law community, perhaps due to the practical failings of reform theory in the previous decades. This was to many a breath of fresh air into a theory that had been all but abandoned decades prior, particularly in the United States. There currently appears to be a greater amount of discussion about the difference between these two flavors of retribution than between retribution itself and the other theories of punishment.

Criticism

According to some theories of ethics, punishment (or proportional punishment) is evidently self-contradictory. Retributive punishment is unethical, these theories claim, if "two wrongs do not make a right."

Some hold that the motive behind the Christian sanction for interpersonal relations ("turn the other cheek" before seeking retribution for a wrong), and the motive behind the sanctions for social magistrates (which include the application of retributive justice, e.g., "just stonings"), conflict. On the other hand, the motives for the social sanctions can be attributed to other justifications beyond simple retaliation.

Many jurisdictions following the retributive philosophy, especially in the United States, follow a set tariff, where judges impose a penalty for a crime within the range set by the tariff. As a result, some argue that judges do not have enough discretion to allow for mitigating factors, leading to unjust decisions under certain circumstances. In the case of fines, the financial position of an offender is not taken into account, leading to situations where an unemployed man and a millionaire could be forced to pay the same fine, creating an unjust situation; either the fine would be too punitive for the unemployed offender, or insufficiently large to punish the millionaire.^[3]

Alternatives

Alternatives to retributive measures include psychiatric imprisonment, restorative justice and transformative justice. A general overview of criminal justice puts each of these ideals in context. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Restorative justice is commonly known as a theory of criminal justice that focuses on crime as an act against another individual or community rather than the state. ... Transformative justice is a general philosophical strategy for responding to conflicts. ... United States criminal justice system flowchart. ...

One libertarian approach to this issue argues that full restitution (in the broad, rather than technical legal, sense) is compatible with both retributivism and a utilitarian degree of deterrence.[1] See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... Deterrence is a theory from behavioural psychology about preventing or controlling actions or behavior through fear of punishment or retribution. ...

Notes and references

^ Cavadino, M & Dignan, J. (1997). The Penal System: An Introduction (2nd ed.), p. 39. London: Sage.
^ Martin, Jacqueline (2005). The English Legal System (4th ed.), p. 174. London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN 0-340-89991-3.
^ Martin, pp. 174–175.

Contents

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Subtypes

Criticism

Alternatives

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

History