Pain and Redemption; Justification of Punishment as “Secular Atonement and Penance”

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Law & Criminology, Faculty of Law and Islamic Studies, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

After the decline of consequentialism as the prominent theory of punishment in the last 200 years, the criminal justice system is in a crisis of justification. This stems from practical doubts about the effectiveness of deterrence and rehabilitation, as well as criticisms of instrumental view of the offender, which neglects their moral agency. Meanwhile the retributivism, has sought to fill the justification gap by introducing new intrinsic and non-instrumental goods that do not reduce the offender to a mere tool and deprive them of moral dignity. Some retributivists have sought these advantages in the religious model of treating wrongdoers based on Atonement and Penance. The problem is that this model is incompatible with liberal autonomy and individualism. As a solution this theory suggests a reconstruction that involves secularization of these originally religious institutions. By retaining the form and infusing them with liberal content, this approach seeks to offers a socially beneficial model of punishment that respect the idea of human “being end in itself” and moral agent. This article employs a descriptive and analytical approach to conduct a critical re-examination of this theories. The outcome of the analysis casts doubt on the viability of this adaptation. Firstly, the plan overlooks the interconnection of the institutions of attonement, penance, and repentance from the traditional community, which is based on normative objectivity. Secondly, it disregards the incompatibility of these institutions with a liberal society characterized by individualism and pluralism. Therefore, it pays insufficient attention to both the origin and the destination.

Keywords

References

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