Retributivism and the inadvertent punishment of the innocent
Law and Philosophy 2 (2):233 - 246 (1983)
| Abstract | Retributivism is generally thought to forbid the punishment of the innocent, even if such punishment would produce otherwise good results, such as deterrence. It has recently been argued that because capital punishment always entails the risk of executing an innocent person, instituting capital punishment is tantamount to intentionally taking innocent lives and therefore cannot be justified on retributive grounds. I argue that there are several versions of retributivism, only one of which might categorically forbid risking punishing innocent persons. I also argue that our moral practices reveal either that we do not hold this particular version of retributivism, or that we reject equating risking punishing the innocent with intentionally doing so. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A9102008 00005. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesThom Brooks (2005). Kantian Punishment and Retributivism: A Reply to Clark. Ratio 18 (2):237–245.
D. Dolinko (1997). Retributivism, Consequentialism, and the Intrinsic Goodness of Punishment. Law and Philosophy 16 (5):507-528.
J. Angelo Corlett (2003). Making More Sense of Retributivism: Desert as Responsibility and Proportionality. Philosophy 78 (2):279-287.
Göran Duus-Otterström (2010). Fallibility and Retribution. Law and Philosophy 29 (3):337-369.
Thom Brooks (2004). Retributivist Arguments Against Capital Punishment. Journal of Social Philosophy 35 (2):188–197.
Richard L. Lippke (2011). Punishing the Guilty, Not Punishing the Innocent. Journal of Moral Philosophy 7 (4):462-488.
Alan Wertheimer (1977). Punishing the Innocent — Unintentionally. Inquiry 20 (1-4):45 – 65.
Daniel Z. Korman (2003). The Failure of Trust-Based Retributivism. Law and Philosophy 22 (6):561-575.
J. Angelo Corlett (2001). Making Sense of Retributivism. Philosophy 76 (1):77-110.
George Schedler (2011). Retributivism and Fallible Systems of Punishment. Criminal Justice Ethics 30 (3):240-266.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads97 ( #6,568 of 549,066 )Recent downloads (6 months)3 ( #25,703 of 549,066 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
