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"Recidivism as Omission: A Relational Account"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this articleby Professor Youngjae Lee now available via SSRN. This abstract makes clear that this article has to be on every sentencing fan's holiday reading list: Are repeat offenders more culpable than first-time offenders? In the United States, the most important determinant of punishment for a crime, other than the seriousness of the crime itself, is the offender's criminal history.  Despite the popularity of the view that repeat offenders deserve to be treated more harshly than first-time offenders, there is no satisfactory retributivist account of the "recidivist premium."  This Article advances a retributivist defense of the recidivist premium and proposes that the recidivist premium be thought of as punishment not, as sometimes suggested, for a defiant attitude or a bad character trait, but as punishment for an omission...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).