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8 - The Apology Ritual and its rivals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Christopher Bennett
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

In this part of the book I have proposed a theory that – like some forms of retributivism – sees punishment as aimed at expressing proportionate condemnation of wrongdoing, but is also – like the idea of restorative justice – based in the idea of restoring relationships damaged by crime. It is a theory that has common ground with a number of well-known approaches to criminal justice. In this chapter we will look at some of these rival theories and compare their merits with my own approach.

the apology ritual and restorative justice: some practical implications

We will begin by returning to restorative justice. The fundamental criticism that we considered in chapter 6 is that informal restorative justice leaves out something that the political community has a responsibility to do in the wake of an offence, which is to condemn the offence. This is an important way in which the political community can do something to vindicate the victim: not doing so, treating it as though it might be just a private matter for the individuals concerned to sort out, would be a failure of solidarity with the victim. On the basis of this insight we saw that there is a role for the criminal sanction – understood as what I have called the Apology Ritual – as an expression of collective condemnation of crimes, where crimes are ‘public wrongs’ – morally wrong actions that affect the perpetrator's relations with their fellow citizens (where all parties are considered as participating in a certain morally structured relationship) and where it is the role of the state to express this condemnation.

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The Apology Ritual
A Philosophical Theory of Punishment
, pp. 175 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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