| The Practice of Punishment: Towards a Theory of Restorative Justice Contributor(s): Cragg, Wesley (Author) |
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ISBN: 041504149X ISBN-13: 9780415041492 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $42.70 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 1992 Annotation: In the latter half of the twentieth century, there has been a sharp decline in confidence in sentencing principles, due to a questioning of the efficacy of punishment. It has been very difficult to develop consistent, fair, and humane criteria for evaluating legislative, judicial and correctional advancements. b /b b i The Practice of Punishment /i /b offers a comprehensive study of punishment that identifies the principles of sentencing and corrections on which modern correctional systems should be built. br br The theory of punishment that emerges is built on the view that the central function of the law is to reduce the need to use force in the resolutions of disputes. In this text, Wesley Cragg argues that the proper role of sentencing and sentence administration, as well as policing and adjudication, is to sustain public confidence in the capacity of the law to fulfill that function. Cragg believes that sentencing and corrections should be guided by principles of restorative justice, and he contends that inflicting punishment is in itself not a legitimate objective of criminal law. br br b /b b i The Practice /i /b b /b b i of Punishment /i /b is a philosophical account of punishment, sentencing, and correction which draws strongly on first-hand experience of penal practices, diverse recent studies, government reports, position papers, crime surveys, and victim concerns. It will be of special interest to applied ethicists, those concerned with the theory and practice of punishment and policing, and criminal justice scholars and lawyers. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Law | Criminal Law - General - Philosophy - Education | Teaching Methods & Materials - Arts & Humanities |
| Dewey: 345.077 |
| LCCN: 91022364 |
| Lexile Measure: 1340 |
| Series: Readings in Applied Ethics |
| Physical Information: 0.75" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (1.09 lbs) 268 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This study focuses on the practice of punishment, as it is inflicted by the state. The author's first-hand experience with penal reform, combined with philosophical reflection, has led him to develop a theory of punishment that identifies the principles of sentencing and corrections on which modern correctional systems should be built. This new theory of punishment is built on the view that the central function of the law is to reduce the need to use force in the resolution of disputes. Professor Cragg argues that the proper role of sentencing and sentence administration is to sustain public confidence in the capacity of the law to fulfil that function. Sentencing and corrections should therefore be guided by principles of restorative justice. He points out that, although punishment may be an inevitable concomitant of law enforcement in general and sentencing in particular, inflicting punishment is not a legitimate objective of criminal justice. The strength and appeal of this account is that it moves well beyond the boundaries of conventional discussions. It examines punishment within the framework of policing and adjudication, analyses the relationship between punishment and sentencing, and provides a basis for evaluating correctional practices and such developments as electronic monitoring. |