Rethinking Criminal Justice

Norrie develops a fundamentally different mature retributive theory that could solve the intractable problems of crime and punishment.

Criminal justice is in crisis. Retributive blame and punishment lead only to more violence, wasted lives and an incessant 'crime problem'. Norrie shows how a moral psychology of guilt and forgiveness addresses violation in a fundamentally different way. A mature retributive theory is abolitionist in its implications.For 200 years, the penal equation 'crime plus blame equals punishment' has meant prison crises, a permanent crime problem, violent and damaged lives. The retributive theory of punishment supports this; fully developed, it could transform it. A moral psychology of violation distinguishes primitive and mature retributivism, explaining punishment's necessary failure and guilt, forgiveness and reconciliation's power. 'Atonement' means both punitive 'payback' and being 'at one' again with self and others. Reconciliation for offender, victim and society leads to punishment's deep, tendential abolition.  Intellectually innovative and bold, Alan Norrie's mature retributivism is rooted in human ontology, in the metaphysical animal that thinks and loves. Speaking to law, philosophy, criminology and criminal justice, his moral psychology considers victims who victimise, grief at violation, denial and mourning and the loving prison. Exploring ethics, psychoanalysis, social theory, testimony and film, his psychologically developed moral philosophy challenges basic assumptions about punishment and the penal equation.