
Contents
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19.1 Desert and the Severity Problem 19.1 Desert and the Severity Problem
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19.1.1 Comparative Desert 19.1.1 Comparative Desert
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19.1.2 Vagueness 19.1.2 Vagueness
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19.1.3 Conventions 19.1.3 Conventions
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19.2 Lex Talionis 19.2 Lex Talionis
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19.3 Suboptimal Punishment and Punishment under Uncertainty 19.3 Suboptimal Punishment and Punishment under Uncertainty
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19.4 Conclusions 19.4 Conclusions
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Notes Notes
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References References
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19 Retributivism and Severity
Get accessGoran Duus-Otterstrom is Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg
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Published:22 October 2024
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Abstract
This chapter offers an overview of the debates that face retributivism when understood as a theory of sentencing. It focuses especially on the severity problem, which is the problem of establishing an absolute fit between crimes and punishments such that the punishment is noncomparatively deserved. The chapter argues that while this problem certainly remains to be solved in a practical sense, it has a theoretical solution, which is that punishments are noncomparatively deserved when they set back offenders’ interests to the same extent that their crimes set back legitimate interests of the victims. In other words, the suggestion is that retributivists can overcome the severity problem by accepting (a version of) the principle called lex talionis. The chapter also addresses how culpability should figure in this principle as well as how retributivists should proceed when it is unclear what offenders deserve.
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