Accepting One's Punishment as Meaningful Suffering

Law and Philosophy -     

Remorse, Reform and the Real World: Reply to Lippke

This article replies to some of Richard Lippke’s criticisms of my earlier article on the issue of whether remorse should mitigate sentence. I query whether remorse-based mitigation must always wait for signs of moral reform, and re-affirm that remorse is worthy of recognition in itself and not just for the moral reform it may bring. I also argue that, where delayed mitigation is appropriate, the task of ascertaining moral reform is not as dubious, practically or in principle, as Lippke maintains. I then confirm that my defence of the principle that remorse should mitigate sentence is not necessarily a defence of current practice.     

Selling Nostalgia: Mad Men, Postmodernism and Neoliberalism

Postmodernity, the cultural mode of neoliberalism, reduces history to a set of discourses with the concomitant assertion that the individual??s knowledge of the real emerges from an engagement with images of the real The economic structures of neoliberalism encourage rugged individualism, self-reliance, and assert a spurious gender equality. Mad Men, a contemporary media product situated in media-derived nostalgia demonstrates how audiences read the past through the postmodern, neoliberal discourse of style. These readings encourage an ahistorical understanding of gender and class that reinforces neoliberal suppression of people as members of political classes.     

Why Should Remorse be a Mitigating Factor in Sentencing?

This article critically examines the rationales for the well-settled principle in sentencing law that an offender’s remorse is to be treated as a mitigating factor. Four basic types of rationale are examined: remorse makes punishment redundant; offering mitigation can induce remorse; remorse should be rewarded with mitigation; and remorse should be recognised by mitigation. The first three rationales each suffer from certain weaknesses or limitations, and are argued to be not as persuasive as the fourth. The article then considers, and rejects, two arguments against remorse as a mitigating factor in sentencing: that the crime, not the offender, is the focus of punishment; and that the truly remorseful offender would not ask for mitigation. The article concludes with a brief consideration of whether a lack of remorse should be an aggravating factor.

Victory without Triumph: Theodore Roosevelt,Honour, and the Alaska Panhandle Boundary Dispute

This article takes a critical look at the established wisdom regarding the early twentieth century dispute between Canada and the United States over the contours of the Alaska Panhandle. In Canada, the affair is commonly recollected as having featured a sinister combination of American nationalist bullying and duplicitous British diplomacy. The result, according to a Canadian nationalist mythology that resonates to this day, is that Canada was effectively “sacrificed” by Britain at the altar of American territorial acquisitiveness. The reality, as argued in this article, is radically different from the mythology. Far from having “sold out” Canada, Britain was instrumental in securing for it a reasonably generous settlement on the part of an American administration that showed itself prepared to countenance the actual shrinkage of US territory. Rather than being motivated by a politics of bullying, the administration of Theodore Roosevelt was driven by diplomacy of honour.     

New methods for examining expertise in burglars in natural and simulated environments: preliminary findings

Expertise literature in mainstream cognitive psychology is rarely applied to criminal behaviour. Yet, if closely scrutinised, examples of the characteristics of expertise can be identified in many studies examining the cognitive processes of offenders, especially regarding residential burglary. We evaluated two new methodologies that might improve our understanding of cognitive processing in offenders through empirically observing offending behaviour and decision-making in a free-responding environment. We tested hypotheses regarding expertise in burglars in a small, exploratory study observing the behaviour of ‘expert’ offenders (ex-burglars) and novices (students) in a real and in a simulated environment. Both samples undertook a mock burglary in a real house and in a simulated house on a computer. Both environments elicited notably different behaviours between the experts and the novices with experts demonstrating superior skill. This was seen in: more time spent in high value areas; fewer and more valuable items stolen; and more systematic routes taken around the environments. The findings are encouraging and provide support for the development of these observational methods to examine offender cognitive processing and behaviour.     

Perceptions of Discretion in Street-Level Public Service: Examining Administrative Governance in Romania

ABSTRACT

Street-level bureaucrats have long been seen as key figures in program and policy implementation, often occupying unique positions that encompass executive, legislative, and judicial functions. Osborne’s concept of the New Public Governance addresses concepts of policy implementation and interpretive activities that characterize street-level bureaucracy. Current understanding of street-level bureaucracy is, however, dominated by research focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which demonstrate differences from countries in Eastern Europe. This study uses survey data to examine street-level bureaucracy in Romania, with attention to the determinants of bureaucratic perceptions of discretion. Results indicate that proactive personality, prosocial motivation, autonomy, job satisfaction, and years of experience are related to individual perceptions of discretionary latitude among front-line workers.