Criminal Justice Without Moral Responsibility

Abstract

This paper grants the hard determinist position thatmoral responsibility is not coherent with a deterministic worldview and examines hard determinist alternatives to traditionalpunishment. I claim that hard determinist accounts necessarilyinvolve consequentialist reasoning and discuss problems stemmingfrom them. I also argue that a revised model of traditionalconsequentialism called complex consequentialism, a view in whichmultiple values may be considered as ends, provides the best moralframework for a hard determinist account. Ultimately, I examine acriminal justice model that draws heavily on public health ideals andargue that it should considered a complex consequentialist account.