NCJ Number
163433
Date Published
1995
Length
292 pages
Annotation
This book traces the evolution of theories of punishment, from the retributive and utilitarian perspectives to conflict resolution and restorative justice, and proposes a new theory of restorative crime handling.
Abstract
The book is divided into three sections. The first section examines the role of responsibility in traditional theories of punishment: Retribution and Responsibility. Utilitarian Responsibility, and Responsibility in Reformatory and Therapeutic Theories. The second section considers retributive and utilitarian political perspectives on criminal justice, theories which take certain social goals as preset and attempt to provide directions for their attainment. The last section introduces the perspective of conflict resolution, an approach which suggests that criminal justice should be replaced by informal procedures of settling conflicts in the community. Aspects of this approach are also important to the proposed theory of restorative crime handling, which attempts to restore the balance of trust disturbed by the presumed conflict created by crime. The concluding chapters discuss general political and cultural implications of this theory and some foreseeable objections, and interpret and assess results. Footnotes, bibliography