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Compassion and the criminal justice system: stumbling along towards a jurisprudence of love and forgiveness

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Punishment and the Moral Emotions: Essays in Law, Morality, and Religion By Jeffrie G.Murphy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 322 pp. ISBN 978-0-1997-6438-6 £45.00 hardback

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2015

Julia J. A. Shaw
Julia J. A. Shaw*
Affiliation:
School of Law, De Montfort University, Leicester
*
jshaw@dmu.ac.uk
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Extract

As the title suggests, Jeffrie G. Murphy's latest anthology of thirteen essays comprises an agglomeration of his thoughts on punishment and forgiveness along with the moral emotions of guilt, remorse, resentment, shame, love and jealousy. All were written and published in law and philosophy journals between 1999 and 2011, with the exception of the final chapter in which he returns to an earlier passion for Kant's moral, political and legal theory in relation to duelling, infanticide, shipwrecks and the right of necessity. Murphy's enduring commitment to the quasi-Kantian ideal of human dignity is articulated by reference to the social significance of a religious framework within which, he claims, it is possible to elucidate an appropriately moral vision of punishment for criminal justice decision-making. Although the investigation of moral emotions is not purported to deliver solutions in the form of a set of precise rules or principles capable of producing specific outcomes, he provides normative direction by an appeal to the core values which comprise the traditional Christian ethic of forgiveness. Because, according to Christianity, we are all created in God's image, there is resemblance between all human beings which means we are able to identify with the sentiments of others.

Type
Review essay
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 92 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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