Hate and Punishment

According to legal expressivism, neither crime nor punishment consists merely in intentionally imposing some kind of harm on another. Crime and punishment also have an expressive aspect. They are what they are in part because they enact attitudes toward others—in the case of crime, some kind of disr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of interpersonal violence 2015-06, Vol.30 (10), p.1719-1737
Main Author: Kauppinen, Antti
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude
Attitudes
Bias
Crime
Crime - ethics
Crime - legislation & jurisprudence
Crime Victims - psychology
Criminal sentences
Hate
Hate crimes
Humans
Punishment
Victims of Crime
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Summary:According to legal expressivism, neither crime nor punishment consists merely in intentionally imposing some kind of harm on another. Crime and punishment also have an expressive aspect. They are what they are in part because they enact attitudes toward others—in the case of crime, some kind of disrespect, at least, and in the case of punishment, society’s condemnation or reprobation. Punishment is justified, at least in part, because (and when) it uniquely expresses fitting condemnation or other retributive attitude. What makes retributive attitudes fitting is that they protect the victim’s status as inviolable. Hate or bias crimes dramatize the expressive aspect of crime, as they are often designed to send a message to the victim’s group and society at large. Treating the enactment of contempt and denigration toward a historically underprivileged group as an aggravating factor in sentencing may be an appropriate way to counter this message, as it reaffirms and indeed realizes the fundamental equality and inviolability of all members of a democratic community.
ISSN:0886-2605
1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/0886260514548583