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The Humanity and Culture of Crime and Punishment

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

Bill Stuntz over at Less Than the Least has an intriguing post about the relationship between culture, law, and punishment. He makes a number of good and interesting points about how culture shapes the law. He judiciously states: A good deal of social science research suggests that people obey the law, when they do so, because the legal system seems fair and legitimate. This is indeed true, but the implications are quite far-reaching and often at odds with the orthodoxy of what is considered the proper aim of crime, punishment, and responsibility. The law in many respects is an emotional process. For all of the stoic statutes and dry regulations, how people relate to the law is governed mostly by their perceptions of justice and fairness...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).