- First book to expound a new theory that provides a rational foundation for the practice of punishment
- Provides a moral defense of revenge in a way never before attempted
- Gives a concise but systematic summary of the current state of the debate
- Is written at a level that is accessible to researchers and practitioners alike, avoiding technical philosophical jargon or abstruse issues in philosophy
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- About this book
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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.
- Table of contents (8 chapters)
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The Problem of Punishment
Pages 1-18
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Punishment as Crime Prevention
Pages 19-45
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Can Retributive Punishment Be Justified?
Pages 47-72
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The Mixed Theory of Punishment
Pages 73-92
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Retribution and Revenge
Pages 93-112
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Honor and Revenge: A Theory of Punishment
- Authors
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- Whitley R.P. Kaufman
- Series Title
- Law and Philosophy Library
- Series Volume
- 104
- Copyright
- 2013
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
- eBook ISBN
- 978-94-007-4845-3
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-94-007-4845-3
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-94-007-4844-6
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-94-017-8475-7
- Series ISSN
- 1572-4395
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VIII, 204
- Topics
