Abstract

I argue that R.A. Duff’s and Sandra Marshall’s liberal-communitarian justification for punishment doesn’t account for a troubling kind of subordination that results from communicative punishment. Communicative punishment requires a specific interpretation of the nature of the wrong. I focus on victims with incorrect but plausible interpretations of the wrong they’ve suffered to illustrate how a victim’s view a community or other’s view. In the end, I suggest that conceptualizing wrongs as against individuals in relations, rather than as members of communities with shared values, minimizes this kind of subordination.