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Punishment for the Greater Good examines the justification of punishment in the here and now, recognizing that we are uncertain about matters of both fact and value. With over ten million people incarcerated around the world, we don't have time to wait for the perfect moral theory: Kolber shows how to do the best we can with what we already know.
List of contents
- Chapter 1: Punishment Theory Here and Now
- Chapter 2: Axiology Here and Now
- Chapter 3: Shortcut Consequentialism
- Chapter 4: Countering Counterintuition
- Chapter 5: Against Proportionality
- Chapter 6: Retributivism is Too Morally Risky
- Chapter 7: Abolish Incarceration, But Not Today
About the author
Adam J. Kolber is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School where he writes and teaches in criminal law, jurisprudence, and neurolaw. He was a visiting fellow at Princeton University's Center for Human Values and NYU Law School's Center for Research in Crime and Justice. He has clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, practiced law at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and worked as a business ethics consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Professor Kolber graduated Order of the Coif from Stanford Law School and summa cum laude from Princeton University where he won the Class of 1879 Prize in Ethics.
Summary
Punishment for the Greater Good examines the justification of punishment in the here and now, recognizing that we are uncertain about matters of both fact and value. With over ten million people incarcerated around the world, we don't have time to wait for the perfect moral theory: Kolber shows how to do the best we can with what we already know.
Additional text
Kolber argues that the theories need to be tested in terms of their effects in the real world. He concludes that consequentialist theories are superior since various experiments, including the abolition of prisons, can be measured in terms of their effects. Recommended.
