Universität zu Köln

McGeer, Victoria ORCID: 0000-0002-7328-0563 and Funk, Friederike ORCID: 0000-0002-6514-3235 (2017). Are 'Optimistic' Theories of Criminal Justice Psychologically Feasible? The Probative Case of Civic Republicanism. Crim. Law Philos., 11 (3). S. 523 - 545. DORDRECHT: SPRINGER. ISSN 1871-9805

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

'Optimistic' normative theories of criminal justice aim to justify criminal sanction in terms of its reprobative/rehabilitative value rather than its punitive nature as such. But do such theories accord with ordinary intuitions about what constitutes a 'just' response to wrongdoing? Recentempiricalwork on the psychology of punishers suggests that humanbeings have a 'brutely retributive' moral psychology, making them unlikely to endorse normative theories that sacrifice retribution for the sake of reprobation or rehabilitation; it would mean, for example, that we cannot expect people to support such optimistic theories democratically, calling their feasibility into question. Taking the civic republican theory as an exemplar of optimistic theories, we argue that it does not fail this feasibility test. We review recent empirical research, including studies of our own, to support the claim that, far from being brute retributivists, human beings are generally satisfied only with punishment that delivers something other than mere retribution. Andwe show that this coheres very closely with the goals and policies that civic republicanism would support, as it may be expected to cohere also with other optimistic proposals.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code McGeer, Victoria UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-7328-0563 UNSPECIFIED Funk, Friederike UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-6514-3235 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-219657
DOI:	10.1007/s11572-015-9381-2
Journal or Publication Title:	Crim. Law Philos.
Volume:	11
Number:	3
Page Range:	S. 523 - 545
Date:	2017
Publisher:	SPRINGER
Place of Publication:	DORDRECHT
ISSN:	1871-9805
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language PUNISHMENT; NORMS; RESPONSIBILITY; COOPERATION; ENFORCEMENT; RETRIBUTION; EMOTIONS; MORALITY; CULTURES; LIMITS Multiple languages Law Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/21965