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Preventive justice: A paradigm in need of testing
Author(s) -
Slobogin Christopher
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2350
Subject(s) - retributive justice , honor , criminal justice , economic justice , psychology , process (computing) , behavioural sciences , criminology , law , sociology , engineering ethics , political science , computer science , social science , engineering , internet privacy , operating system
This article is a revision of an address made at the 2016 annual conference of the American Psychology‐Law Society, in honor of receiving that organization's Distinguished Contribution Award. It sets forth a vision of the criminal justice system, and in particular the sentencing process, that is oriented toward preventive, rather than retributive, justice. After explaining preventive justice – a concept that in one form or another has been discussed for decades – and why it is worth revisiting at this time, the article proposes a number of hypotheses about the assumptions underlying preventive and retributive justice regimes. In the course of doing so, it references how the articles in this Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law address these hypotheses, and calls for further research from psychologists and other social scientists designed to test the fundamental assumptions of criminal law.