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"Mercy, Crime Control & Moral Credibility"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this new piece by the always interesting Professor Paul Robinson. Here is the abstract: If, in the criminal justice context, "mercy" is defined as forgoing punishment that is deserved, then much of what passes for mercy is not.  Giving only minor punishment to a first-time youthful offender, for example, might be seen as an exercise of mercy but in fact may be simply the application of standard blameworthiness principles, under which the offender's lack of maturity may dramatically reduce his blameworthiness for even a serious offense.  Desert is a nuanced and rich concept that takes account of a wide variety of factors.  The more a writer misperceives desert as wooden and objective, the more likely the writer is to mistake judgments of blamelessness for exercises of mercy...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 06, 2010 (boomark / email).