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Punishment, Guilt, And Shame In Biblical Thought, George P. Fletcher
Punishment, Guilt, And Shame In Biblical Thought, George P. Fletcher
Faculty Scholarship
The centrality of guilt in the criminal law provides puzzling perspective in the perennial debate on the nature and purpose of punishment. Why is it that all legal systems use this highly charged moral term to refer to an essential component of liability to punishment? This question is not easily answered. The reliance on the concept of guilt in the criminal law is suffused with paradox and mystery.