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"The Subjective Experience of Punishment"

By Douglas A. Berman

With thanks to Larry Solum for this pointer, I see Adam Kolber has this new paper on SSRN titled "The Subjective Experience of Punishment".  Here is the abstract:Suppose two people commit the same crime and are sentenced to equal terms in the same prison facility. I argue that they have identical punishments in name only. One may experience incarceration as challenging but tolerable while the other is thoroughly tormented by it. Our sentencing policies seek to equalize the duration of their incarceration, yet largely ignore the differences in their experiences of isolation, stigma, and confinement. In this article, I argue that, according to our prevailing theories of punishment, the subjective experience of punishment matters...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).