Law Commons^™

Some Hypotheses About Empirical Desert, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Paul Robinson has written a series of articles advocating the view that empirical desert should govern development of criminal law doctrine. The central contention of empirical desert is that adherence to societal views of justice“ defined in terms of moral blameworthiness will not only satisfy retributive urges, but will also often be as efficacious at controlling crime as a system that revolves around other utilitarian purposes of punishment. Constructing criminal laws that implement empirical desert has the latter effect, Robinson argues, because it enhances the moral credibility of the law, thus minimizing citizens desire to engage in vigilantism and other …