The limits of blame : rethinking punishment and responsibility / Erin I. Kelly.

By:

Kelly, Erin [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018Description: 1 online resource (229 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780674989436
0674989430

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Limits of blame.DDC classification:

364.01 23

LOC classification:

K5103 . K49 2018eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction: Criminalizing people -- Accountability in criminal justice -- Skepticism about moral desert -- Blame and excuses -- Criminal justice without blame -- Rethinking punishment -- Law enforcement in an unjust society -- Conclusion: Civic justice.

Summary: Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, 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. The author 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. 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.-- Provided by publisher.

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Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, 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. The author 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. 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.-- Provided by publisher.