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Culture, democracy and vengeance in modern American justice

By Douglas A. Berman

I just received a notice about this new book from Cambridge University Press authored by Kenneth Aladjem and titled "The Culture of Vengeance and the Fate of American Justice."  Here is the publisher's teaser for the book:America is driven by vengeance in Terry Aladjem?s provocative account ? a reactive, public anger that is a threat to democratic justice itself.  From the return of the death penalty to the wars on terror and in Iraq, Americans demand retribution and moral certainty; they assert the ?rights of victims? and make pronouncements against ?evil.?  Yet for Aladjem this dangerously authoritarian turn has its origins in the tradition of liberal justice itself ? in theories of punishment that justify inflicting pain and in the punitive practices that result...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).