The Utility of Desert
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
9-25-2008
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the crime-control value of the empirical desert. It argues that a number of specific crime-control powers become available to a system if, and only if, it earns with the community a reputation as a reliable moral authority. How such a reputation can be won and lost is examined. The chapter then considers how a distributive principle might be constructed that would earn such a reputation for moral credibility and some of the problems that might be encountered in the effort.
Keywords
empirical desert, Distributive Principle, crime control, punishment, moral credibility
Publication Title
Distributive Principles of Criminal Law: Who Should be Punished How Much
Repository Citation
Robinson, Paul, "The Utility of Desert" (2008). Book Chapters. 167.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_chapters/167
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365757.003.0008
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365757.003.0008