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Restorative Justice, Punishment, And Atonement, Stephen P. Garvey
Restorative Justice, Punishment, And Atonement, Stephen P. Garvey
Stephen P. Garvey
Restorative justice is a way of responding to crime, and according to its proponents, it's a much better way of responding than the way they believe we now respond: through punishment imposed in the name of retributive justice. According to its proponents, restorative justice is better than retributive justice because it restores, or at least tries to restore, the victim; retribution's only aim is to punish the offender. According to restorativists, retribution ignores the victim. I argue here for two claims. First, I argue in Part II that restorative justice cannot have it both ways: it cannot achieve the restoration …
Is It Wrong To Commute Death Row? Retribution, Atonement, And Mercy, Stephen P. Garvey
Is It Wrong To Commute Death Row? Retribution, Atonement, And Mercy, Stephen P. Garvey
Stephen P. Garvey
Is it a morally permissible exercise of mercy for a governor to commute the death sentences of everyone on a state's death row, as Governor Ryan recently did in Illinois? I distinguish three different theories of mercy. The first two theories locate mercy within a theory of punishment as retribution. The first theory treats mercy as a means by which to achieve equity. As such, this theory is not really a theory of mercy; it is instead a theory of justice. The second theory treats mercy as a genuine virtue independent of justice. In particular, mercy is understood as an …
Lifting The Veil On Punishment, Stephen P. Garvey
Lifting The Veil On Punishment, Stephen P. Garvey
Stephen P. Garvey
When the state punishes a person, it treats him as it ordinarily should not. It takes away his property, throws him in prison, or otherwise interferes with his liberty. Theories of punishment try to explain why such harsh treatment is nonetheless morally permissible, if not morally obligatory. Such theories often seem to take for granted that the state in question is an upright one. Among other things, the states in which we live fail, one might reasonably believe, to distribute wealth and power fairly among their citizens. Nor are the criminal justice systems they superintend flawless, not least of which …