RESPONDENTS' ‘FREE WILL’ VIEW OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AND SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. E. Tygart
Author(s):  
Derk Pereboom ◽  
Gregg D. Caruso

Derk Pereboom and Gregg Caruso’s chapter on hard-incompatibilist existentialism explores the practical and existential implications of free will skepticism, focusing on punishment, morality, and meaning in life. They consider two different routes to free will skepticism: the route that denies the causal efficacy of the types of willing required for free will, which receives impetus from pioneering work in neuroscience, and the route that does not deny the causal efficacy of the will but instead claims that, whether deterministic or indeterministic, it does not achieve the level of control to count as free will. They argue that while there are compelling objections to the first route, the second remains intact and that free will skepticism allows for adequate ways of responding to criminal behavior—in particular, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and alternation of relevant social conditions—and that these methods are both morally justified and sufficient for good social policy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg D. Caruso ◽  

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-122
Author(s):  
Oleg N. Bibik

The subject. The issues of combating terrorism through the prism of culture are examined in the article.The purpose of the article is to show the anti-terroristic measures through the scope of culture.The description of methodology. The author uses methods of complex analysis, synthesis, as well as formal-legal, comparative-legal methods in cultural aspect.The main results and scope of their application. Acts of terrorism are frequent and occur almost worldwide.Counter-terrorism through criminal penalties is ineffective, because: 1) there are a lot of people among the terrorists who are law-abiding, criminal behavior is not typical for them; 2) in case of terrorist acts by suicide bombers they could not be objectively deter by the threat of punishment; 3) criminal punishment, including capital punishment, can give him the halo of a martyr.Acts of terrorism cause a serious public outcry. Attempts to strengthen the criminal repression are being made often as a consequence of the impact of terrorist attacks. However, such a reaction to the terrorist attacks appears due to a desire to symbolically restore the social justice. The application of criminal repression is deeply symbolic, because it is always culturally determined. The execution of a terrorist should also be considered as an element of symbolic exchange (punishment instead of a crime).Terrorism is motivated ideologically, that’s why it may be regarded as a kind of ideological crime. Its foundation is a system of views, concepts that allow the offender consider crime as right, morally justified, committing for a higher purpose.Conclusions. It is proposed to consider the fight against terrorism as primarily a struggle with the idea that caused it to life, through the anti-terrorist propaganda, the formation of a negative image of the terrorist in popular culture, minimization of highlighting terrorist attacks and those, who committed them, in the press. The basis of counter-terrorism due to the conflict of cultures is the idea of a dialogue between them. Developing a strategy to counter terrorism we should take into account the risks that inevitably arise in connection with the limitation of rights and freedoms of people. Counter-terrorism is not a convenient reason for explaining the growing influence of law enforcement on social processes, especially for undermining the democratic foundations of the state.


Author(s):  
Farah Focquaert ◽  
Andrea L. Glenn ◽  
Adrian Raine

In Chapter 13, the authors address the issue of free will skepticism and criminal behavior, asking how we should, as a society, deal with criminal behavior in the current era of neuroexistentialism and if our belief in free will is essential to adequately addressing it, or if neurocriminology offer a new way of addressing crime without resorting to backward-looking notions of moral responsibility and guilt. They argue for a neurocriminological approach to “moral answerability” and forward-looking claims of responsibility that focus on the moral betterment or moral enhancement of individuals prone to criminal behavior and on reparative measures toward victims, placed within a broader public health perspective of human behavior. Within this framework, neurocriminology approaches to criminal behavior may provide specific guidance within a broader moral enhancement framework. Rather than undermining current criminal justice practices, the free will skeptics’ approach can draw on neurocriminological findings to reduce immoral behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (15) ◽  
pp. 4739-4757
Author(s):  
Ofer Zemel ◽  
Tomer Einat ◽  
Natti Ronel

The current research is a qualitative examination of the relations between self-control and deterministic/non-deterministic perceptions of life events and the drifts into or desistance from a criminal spin among juvenile delinquents. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 adolescents (11 active delinquents and 10 desisters), we found that both the intensification of criminal behavior and the desistance from criminal activity are gradual and connected to the reduction or acquisition, respectively, of self-control and the offenders’ belief in their self-control. Criminal behavior and self-control were found to be associated with deterministic or non-deterministic perceptions of life events: the former combined with low self-control are associated with a delinquent lifestyle; the latter combined with high self-control promote the likelihood that young offenders will modify their behavior and desist from criminal behavior. The study may provide better understanding of the role of the criminal spin in the engagement or desistance from criminal behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-461
Author(s):  
Man Baker

Abstract This article sheds light on the Islamic legal ruling concerning apostasy (riddah). It reviews the verses of the Qur’an and the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad concerning apostasy, with the aim of reaching a firm conclusion on this topic, particularly because Islam has been accused of being a religion that forces people to embrace it, even against peoples’ free will. The article also reviews Muslim scholars’ points of view concerning this topic and the historical circumstances and conditions regarding it. The article concludes that Islam never sentences anyone to death for eschewing Islam; it merely does so for riddah.


Author(s):  
Derk Pereboom

This book provides an account of how we might address wrongdoing given challenges to anger and retribution that arise from ethical considerations and from concerns about free will. It contends that we should dispense with basically deserved pain and harm, and with associated retributive sentiments. Without such desert, how might we understand blame? Blame can be conceived as taking on a non-retributive stance of moral protest, whose function is to secure forward-looking goals such as moral reform and reconciliation. Is it possible to justify effectively dealing with those who pose dangerous threats if they do not deserve to be harmed? Wrongfully posing such a threat, by contrast with deserving harm for posing the threat, is proposed as the core condition for the legitimacy of defensive harming. An account is then provided for addressing criminal behavior without a retributive justification for punishment, one in which the right of self-defense provides justification for measures such as preventative detention. How might we forgive if wrongdoers don’t basically deserve the pain of being resented, which forgiveness would then renounce? Forgiveness might instead be conceived as the renunciation of the stance of moral protest. But how might personal relationships function without retributive anger having a role in responding to wrongdoing? The stance of moral protest, together with non-retributive emotions, is argued to be sufficient. The book closes with a consideration of attitudes regarding the fate of humanity in a deterministic universe replete with wrongdoing, and defends the rationality of a transcendent hope for humanity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Sacchi ◽  
Paolo Riva ◽  
Marco Brambilla

Anthropomorphization is the tendency to ascribe humanlike features and mental states, such as free will and consciousness, to nonhuman beings or inanimate agents. Two studies investigated the consequences of the anthropomorphization of nature on people’s willingness to help victims of natural disasters. Study 1 (N = 96) showed that the humanization of nature correlated negatively with willingness to help natural disaster victims. Study 2 (N = 52) tested for causality, showing that the anthropomorphization of nature reduced participants’ intentions to help the victims. Overall, our findings suggest that humanizing nature undermines the tendency to support victims of natural disasters.


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