Crime, Responsibility, and the Law

Harvard FAS

One of the central questions of any political system is how to respond to those who violate the legally enforced norms of behavior that make up the criminal law. In this seminar, we will consider the philosophical justifications that have been given for the operation of the criminal justice system and, in particular, for the practice of punishing offenders. We will focus on the contrasting ideologies of retributivism and consequentialism and how those systems address moral principles such as…