Social deprivation and criminal punishment

<p>My aim in this thesis is to examine whether there are some mitigating factors, i.e. reasons to punish an offender less for his crime than an otherwise similar offender (other than that the offender suffered from mental disorder or disturbance or other forms of irrationality at the time of o...

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Main Author: Chau, PSC
Other Authors: Gardner, J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2015
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author Chau, PSC
author2 Gardner, J
author_facet Gardner, J
Chau, PSC
author_sort Chau, PSC
collection OXFORD
description <p>My aim in this thesis is to examine whether there are some mitigating factors, i.e. reasons to punish an offender less for his crime than an otherwise similar offender (other than that the offender suffered from mental disorder or disturbance or other forms of irrationality at the time of offence), that are more applicable to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders. I will answer the thesis question through a critical examination of twelve arguments for claiming that there is a mitigating factor that is more applicable to socially deprived offenders, each proposing a different mitigating factor.</p> <p>My conclusions are as follows:</p> <p>(1) Most of the arguments that I examine fail, i.e. they either fail to highlight a genuine mitigating factor, or we do not have much evidence that the mitigating factor highlighted by the argument has a greater applicability to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders.</p> <p>(2) However, one argument, which can be called the <em>no violation of natural duties argument</em>, is successful.</p> <p>(3) Moreover, <em>the improvement of the worst off argument</em>, an argument that is not often discussed in the literature, is particularly noteworthy. If my discussion about that argument is correct, then even if, as I will argue, the mitigating factor highlighted by that argument may not be more applicable to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders, the remaining parts of that argument would still have profound influence on punishment in our unjust societies.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:59b68db7-20b7-461f-8c08-f8ee3e67d6362022-03-26T17:11:24ZSocial deprivation and criminal punishmentThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:59b68db7-20b7-461f-8c08-f8ee3e67d636EnglishORA Deposit2015Chau, PSCGardner, JMcDermott, D<p>My aim in this thesis is to examine whether there are some mitigating factors, i.e. reasons to punish an offender less for his crime than an otherwise similar offender (other than that the offender suffered from mental disorder or disturbance or other forms of irrationality at the time of offence), that are more applicable to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders. I will answer the thesis question through a critical examination of twelve arguments for claiming that there is a mitigating factor that is more applicable to socially deprived offenders, each proposing a different mitigating factor.</p> <p>My conclusions are as follows:</p> <p>(1) Most of the arguments that I examine fail, i.e. they either fail to highlight a genuine mitigating factor, or we do not have much evidence that the mitigating factor highlighted by the argument has a greater applicability to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders.</p> <p>(2) However, one argument, which can be called the <em>no violation of natural duties argument</em>, is successful.</p> <p>(3) Moreover, <em>the improvement of the worst off argument</em>, an argument that is not often discussed in the literature, is particularly noteworthy. If my discussion about that argument is correct, then even if, as I will argue, the mitigating factor highlighted by that argument may not be more applicable to socially deprived offenders than to non-socially deprived offenders, the remaining parts of that argument would still have profound influence on punishment in our unjust societies.</p>
spellingShingle Chau, PSC
Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title_full Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title_fullStr Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title_full_unstemmed Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title_short Social deprivation and criminal punishment
title_sort social deprivation and criminal punishment
work_keys_str_mv AT chaupsc socialdeprivationandcriminalpunishment