Crime, Protection, and Compassion

Abstract

Chapter 4 sets out a theory for treatment of criminals that rejects the retributive justification for punishment, does not fall afoul of a plausible prohibition on using people merely as means, and can actually work in the real world. The proposal is largely justified as special deterrence by the right to self-defense and defense of others. This account features a quarantine analogy for a justification of the incapacitation of criminals, for example by preventative detention or monitoring, together with provisions for rehabilitation and reintegration. It also features a justification for penalties designed to secure effective general deterrence, measures that cannot be justified as special deterrence by the self-defense right. Here consequentialist considerations and duties of compensation have a justificatory role.