What is Wrong about the "Criminal Mind"?

Brooks, Thom

Abstract

Retributivists argue for a strong link between a criminal’s mind-set at the time of an offence and our community’s response through punishment. This view claims that punishment can be justified depending on the possession of a criminal mind which can be affected by factors that may affect culpability, such as mitigating factors. Retributivism is a powerful influence on our sentencing practices reflected in policy. This article argues it is based on a mistake about what makes the criminal mind relevant for punishment. It will be argued that a currently popular view of retribution endorsed by Feinberg and Duff – ‘retributivist expressivism’ – incorrectly link punishment to a criminal’s possession of moral responsibility. This is a problem because its absence is no defence to strict liability offences, the largest subset of crimes. It is not a crime’s threat or harm to morals that is most salient, but instead its threat or harm to our rights.

Citation

Brooks, T. (2014). What is Wrong about the "Criminal Mind"?. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 65(2), 141-151

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jul 16, 2014
• Publication Date: Jul 16, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jun 12, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 19, 2014
• Journal: Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0029-3105
• Publisher: School of Law
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 65
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 141-151
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1425448
• Publisher URL: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/Research/NorthernIrelandLegalQuarterly/