The Abolition of Punishment
17 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2009
Date Written: 2001
Abstract
Punishment has diverted the attention of philosophers. A lot of work has been done on the justification of punishment, so that there is a kind of consensus about what the moral limits of punishment are, and what the remaining problems are, and so on. But here's the rub: by failing to distinguish clearly between punishment and the other institutions of the criminal law, we have kidded ourselves into believing that we have a nice, bright line to protect us against abuses, if only we could get the state to conform to it: No one may be punished unless he has committed a crime. But given that that limit is a limit on punishment only, and not on the whole machinery of the criminal law, it is going to turn out that the limit is entirely illusory. It does not limit the state in any way, and it actually covers up some of the abuses we would like to invoke it against. That, at least, is what I intend this paper to persuade you of.
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