Retribution (Crime and Punishment: Critical Essays in Legal Philosophy)

Retribution is perhaps the most popular contemporary theory about punishment and has enjoyed enduring appeal as the oldest, even most venerable, penal theory with its strong ancient roots. Retribution is understood in many different ways, but the standard view of retribution is that punishment is justified where it is deserved and an offender should be punished in proportion to his desert. In this volume, retributivism is examined from various critical perspectives, including its diversity, relation with desert, the link between desert and proportionality, retributivist emotions and the idea of mercy. The theory of retribution has been the subject of a revival of interest in recent years and the essays selected for this volume are the leading works on retribution from the dominant international figures in the field. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Series Preface Introduction PART I: RETRIBUTIONS 1: 'Varieties of Retribution' 2: 'A Taxonomy of Retributivism' 3: 'Punishment' 4: 'Retributivism' PART II: RETRIBUTION AND DESERT 5: 'Marxism and Retribution' 6: 'Does It Matter If the Death Penalty is Arbitrarily Administered?' 7: 'Three Mistakes of Retributivism' 8: 'Why Punish the Deserving?' 9: 'Competing Conceptions of Modern Desert: Vengeful, Deontological, and Empirical' 10: 'Retribution and Capital Punishment' PART III: PROPORTIONALITY 11: 'How to Make the Punishment Fit the Crime' 12: 'Justice, Civilization and the Death Penalty: Answering van den Haag' PART IV: RETRIBUTIVIST EMOTIONS 13: 'The Varieties of Retributive Experience' 14: 'The Moral Worth of Retribution' PART V: RETRIBUTION AND MERCY 15: 'Equity and Mercy' Name index Brings together classic articles written by leading international figures in the field. Each volume is organised thematically with a general introduction to provide and accessible overview of the latest research. The essays selected for inlcusion are seminal works and the series constitutes an invaluable reference resource for libraries, students, researchers and practitioners