Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T12:49:09.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Free Will Skepticism and Prevention of Crime

from Part II - Alternatives to Retributive Punishment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2019

By
Derk Pereboom
Edited by
Elizabeth Shaw ,
Derk Pereboom  and
Gregg D. Caruso
Elizabeth Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Derk Pereboom
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Gregg D. Caruso
Affiliation:
Corning Community College, State University of New York
Get access

Summary

The free will skeptic aims to articulate a theory for treatment of criminals that rejects retributivism, since this justification for punishment is inconsistent with the skeptic’s outlook, but nevertheless actually works in the real world. In past versions of such an account I’ve emphasized the quarantine analogy for incapacitation together with the value of rehabilitation and reintegration (Pereboom 2001, 2014), and I’ve endorsed Gregg Caruso’s embedding of the view within a public health model (Caruso 2016, 2017; Pereboom and Caruso 2018). Recently I’ve paid special attention to the permissibility and the limits of special and general deterrence (Pereboom 2017b, 2019). Here I set out this view and develop it in certain key respects in response to the latest objections raised against it.

Keywords

free will skepticismdeterrencespecial deterrencegeneradeterrencepunishmentquarantinepublic health-quarantine modelrights
Type
Chapter
Information
Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society
Challenging Retributive Justice
 , pp. 99 - 115
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable control and the psychology of blame. Psychology Bulletin, 126, 556–574.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alicke, M. D., Davis, T. L., and Pezzo, M. V.. (1994). A posteriori adjustment of a priori decision criteria, Social Cognition, 8, 286–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alicke, M. D., Rose, D., and Bloom, D.. (2012). Causation, norm violation and culpable control, Journal of Philosophy, 106, 587–612.Google Scholar
Bentham, J. (1789/1948). An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brink, D, and Nelkin, D. (2013). Fairness and the architecture of responsibility. Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, 1, 284–313.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2016). Free will skepticism and criminal behavior: a public health quarantine model. Southwest Philosophy Review, 32(1), 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2017). Public Health and Safety: The Social Determinants of Health and Criminal Behavior. London: ResearchLinks Books.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2019). Justice without retribution: An epistemic argument against retributive criminal punishment. Neuroethics. DOI: 10.1007/s12152-018-9357-8.Google Scholar
Corrado, M. L. (1996). Punishment and the wild beast of prey: the problem of preventive detention. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 778, 1–32.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1984). Elbow Room. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Farrell, D. M. (1985). The justification of general deterrence. The Philosophical Review, 104, 367–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, J. (1970). Justice and personal desert. In Feinberg, J., ed., Doing and Deserving, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 55–94.Google Scholar
Fischer, J. and Ravizza, M. (1998). Responsibility and Control, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1970). Punishment and Responsibility. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hieronymi, P. (2001). Articulating an uncompromising forgiveness. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 62, 529–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, D. (2012). Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1790). The Metaphysics of Morals. Tr. McGregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Kelly, E. (2009). Criminal justice without retribution. Journal of Philosophy, 106, 440–462.Google Scholar
McKenna, M. (2012). Conversation and Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, M. S. (1998). Placing Blame. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morse, S. J. (2013). Common criminal law compatibilism. In Vincent, N. A., ed., Neuroscience and Legal Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 27–52.Google Scholar
Nadelhoffer, T. (2006). Bad acts, blameworthy agents, and intentional actions: some problems for jury impartiality, Philosophical Explorations, 9, 203–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelkin, D. (2018). Duties, desert, and the justification of punishment. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 1–14.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2001). Living Without Free Will. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2014). Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2017a). Responsibility, regret, and protest. Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, 4, 121–140.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2017b). A defense of free will skepticism: replies to commentaries by Victor Tadros, Saul Smilansky, Michael McKenna, and Alfred R. Mele on Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 11(3), 617–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2019). Incapacitation, reintegration, and limited general deterrence. Neuroethics. DOI: 10/.1007/s12152–018-9282-7.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D., and Caruso, G. D.. (2018). Hard-incompatibilist existentialism: neuroscience, punishment, and meaning in life. In Caruso, G. D. and Flanagan, O., eds., Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.193–222.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1955). Two concepts of rules. The Philosophical Review, 64, 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. (2013). Giving desert its due. Philosophical Explorations, 16, 101–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoeman, F. (1979). On incapacitating the dangerous. American Philosophical Quarterly, 16, 27–35.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, D. (2015). Responsibility from the Margins. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoemaker, D. (2017). Response-dependent responsibility. The Philosophical Review, 126, 481–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smilansky, S. (2000). Free Will and Illusion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smilanksy, S. (2017). Pereboom on punishment: funishment, innocence, motivation, and other difficulties. Criminal Law and Philosophy. DOI: 10.1007/s11572-016-9396-3.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (2013). Moral blame and moral protest. In Tognazzini, N. and Coates, D. J., eds., Blame: Its Nature and Norms. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 27–48.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. F. (1962). Freedom and resentment. Proceedings of the British Academy, 48, 187–211.Google Scholar
Tadros, V. (2016). Wrongs and Crimes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Talbert, M. 2012. Moral competence, moral blame, and protest. Journal of Ethics, 16, 89–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vargas, M. (2013). Building Better Beings. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vilhauer, B. (2009). Free will and reasonable doubt. American Philosophical Quarterly, 46, 131–140.Google Scholar
Vilhauer, B. (2013). Persons, punishment, and free will skepticism. Philosophical Studies, 162, 143–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, G. (2014). Peter Strawson on responsibility and sociality. Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, 2, 15–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×