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Sunday 26 August 2012

The American justice system, like most of those in at least the Western world, is built on an idea called retributive justice. In very simplified terms (sorry, I’m not a legal scholar), it defines justice as appropriately punishing someone for an act that’s harmful to society. Our system does include other ideas: incapacitating a criminal from committing other crimes, rehabilitating criminals to rejoin society, and deterring other potential criminals. At its foundation, though, retributive justice is about enforcing both rule of law and more abstract ideas of fairness and morality. Crimes are measured by their damage to society, and it’s society that, working through the court system, metes out in-turn punishment. Justice is treated as valuable and important in itself, not just for its deterrence or incapacitative effects. Nordic vs. American Justice

17 notes

  1. wozziebear reblogged this from azspot
  2. waskommenmag said: It’s not. At all. THAT’s the problem with the American justice system: there is no telos. There is no defined goal of the American legal system, so it’s layer upon layer of incoherence. Retributive justice does in fact work (Singapore has no crime).
  3. ziatroyano reblogged this from azspot
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