Rethinking Criminal Justice

For 200 years, the penal equation 'crime plus blame equals punishment' has led to painful repetition: more prisons, violence, damaged lives, a never-ending 'crime problem'. The retributive theory of punishment is central to this; yet fully developed philosophically, it becomes something fundamentally different. A moral psychology of violation distinguishes retributivism's primitive and mature forms. It explains both punishment's necessary failure and how guilt, forgiveness and reconciliation are possible. 'Atonement' means both punitive 'payback' and being morally 'at one' with self and others. Such reconciliation for the offender, victim and wider society takes us from punishment to its abolition. Grounding responses to violation in moral psychology, mature retributivism finds its roots in natural human powers. Speaking to scholars of law, philosophy and criminology, Alan Norrie shows how a psychologically developed moral philosophy guides critical thinking towards abolishing crime and punishment.