The Proper Role of Community in Determining Criminal Liability and Punishment

Authors

Paul H. Robinson, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This essay argues that community views ought to have a central role in constructing criminal law and punishment rules, for both democratic and crime-control reasons, but ought not to have a role in the adjudication of individual cases. The differences in the American and Chinese debates on these issues are examined and discussed.

Keywords

Empirical desert, moral credibility, stigmatize, vigilantism, social norms, utility of desert, disutility of injustice, community views, retributivism, three-strikes, drug penalties, felony-murder rule, insanity defense, strict liability offenses, American and Chinese debates

Publication Title

Popular Punishment: On the Normative Significance of Public Opinion

Publication Citation

in Popular Punishment: On the Normative Significance of Public Opinion (Jesper Ryberg and Julian A. Roberts eds., Oxford University Press 2014).

Repository Citation

Robinson, Paul H., "The Proper Role of Community in Determining Criminal Liability and Punishment" (2014). All Faculty Scholarship. 434.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199941377.003.0004