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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   35549 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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The term you're looking for in the philosophy of punishment is "incapacitation"--making the criminal incapable of repeating his crime. Imprisonment gets there by putting physical separation between the criminal and his potential victims.

I'd be surprised if they didn't also cover deterrence, both general and specific?

And after 20 years they are middle-aged. Definitely not impossible to commit crimes of violence any more (and if the original crime was against a small child or an elderly person, sure, this does not apply) but if they hang around any criminal elements in an attempt to, say, get an illegal handgun or fence some goods, they are likely to just become another victim.

Yes, incapacitation no longer applies as a justification when the circumstances aren't met. Imprisonment meets the incapacitation justification for the duration of the imprisonment, but not afterwards. Capital punishment meets the incapacitation justification permanently, as can various forms of maiming in the cases of specific crimes.

If reality is a rich tapestry, philosophy often involves taking a microscopic look at one of the threads. This is one of those cases. If you're looking to make policy, you should definitely consider way more factors than whether a specific type of punishment meets a specific philosophical justification!

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