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"Moral Sentiments and the Justification of Punishment"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this interesting-looking new piece from Thom Brooks recently posted on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: What is the relationship between our moral sentiments and the justification of punishment? One position is that our moral sentiments provide for punishment?s justification.  My focus will be on Adam Smith?s theory of punishment and the role that moral sentiments play in this theory.  First, I will argue that interpreters are mistaken to view Smith?s position as essentially retributivist.  In fact, he defends a unified theory where punishment serves retributivist, deterrent, and rehabilitative goals.  Secondly, I will argue that his view that punishment is warranted in cases where we should feel resentment fails to account for much of what we would want included in our criminal law...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).