Why Punish? How Much?: A Reader on Punishment - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195328868 ISBN 13: 9780195328868

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Punishment, like all complex human institutions, tends to change as ways of thinking go in and out of fashion. Normative, political, social, psychological, and legal ideas concerning punishment have changed drastically over time, and especially in recent decades. Why Punish? How Much? collects essays from classical philosophers and contemporary theorists to examine these shifts. Michael Tonry has gathered a comprehensive set of readings ranging from Kant, Hegel, and Bentham to recent writings on developments in the behavioral and medical sciences. Together they cover foundations of punishment theory such as consequentialism, retributivism, and functionalism, new approaches like restorative, communitarian, and therapeutic justice, and mixed approaches that attempt to link theory and policy. This volume includes an accessible introduction that chronicles the development of punishment systems and theorizing over the course of the last two centuries. Why Punish? How Much? provides a fresh and comprehensive approach to thinking about punishment and sentencing for a broad range of law, sociology, philosophy, and criminology courses.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Tonry is Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School, and Senior Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Free University Amsterdam.

Review

"Law students, especially, will value this historically informed, multi-disciplinary, and yet cutting-edge anthology on two of the perennial though most problematic questions of criminal law."--John Kleinig, Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics and Professor of Philosophy, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

"Why Punish? How Much? is a brilliantly organized and highly focused collection on punishment purposes, compiled at a time when the discussion of purposes at all levels is sometimes incoherent and often incomplete. I recommend this volume to lawyers, judges and students of criminal law and criminology alike."--Marc L. Miller, Professor of Law, University of Arizona College of Law

"This is a wonderful selection of historical and contemporary readings that together address all the main themes of punishment theory. The editor's clear and insightful introductions situate the texts and allow readers to make sense of the debates. It will make an ideal textbook for any course on punishment theory"--Matt Matravers, Director of the School of Politics, Economics, & Philosophy, University of York

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0195328868
• ISBN 13: 9780195328868
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 456
• Editor: Tonry Michael