Class hours:  Wed 2:10-4:50
Office hours:  MWTh 5-7 pm
Office: Ward 252
Phone: 885-2955 (call anytime; you can leave a message if I am not in)
e-mail: dgolash@american.edu

Course Description

This course examines the philosophical issues associated with criminal punishment, particularly theories of the moral justification for punishment.  Retributive, deterrent, incapacitation, and moral reform theories will be considered in depth.  In addition, we will consider the role of victim and community anger in the imposition of punishment and alternatives such as restorative justice.

Materials

Murphy, Jeffrie, and Jean Hampton, Forgiveness and Mercy
Course packet (these materials are also available on 2-hour reserve at the library)
Additional materials on course website and JSTOR

Requirements

1. You are expected to attend class and to be prepared to discuss the readings. 
   
2. There will be an optional take-home midterm.  Undergraduates and non-degree students are advised, but not required, to take the midterm.
3. During the first half of the semester, you will choose a topic for your paper.
   
4. After your topic  is approved, you will prepare an annotated bibliography of the background readings for your paper and write a brief paper proposal.
   
5. During the second half of the semester, you will write a 10-12 page paper on your chosen topic.  After receiving comments on your first paper, you will revise it and submit a 12-15 page final version.   Both versions will be graded.
   
6. Early in the semester, you will choose the dates on which you wish to submit your proposal, bibliography, and first paper.  These dates are firm once selected and may be adjusted only for compelling reasons.
7. There will be a final exam.

Grading

• Tests - 40% (if you take the midterm, it counts 20%)
• Proposal and bibliography: 10%
• Second paper:  15%
  
• Final paper:  35%
• Unexcused absences or lack of preparation will lower your final grade; excellent participation will raise it.
  

SCHEDULE AND READINGS

January 14

• Introduction
  
• Excerpt from Foucault, Discipline and Punish

January 21

• Justifications of Punishment:  An Overview [sent by email 1/14]
  
• Plato, Gorgias and Crito [Course packet]
  

Deterrence

January 28 - Classical utilitarian theory

• Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation, ch. XIII, XIV
  
• Brandt, Utilitarian Theory of Punishment [course packet]
  
• McCloskey, Utilitarian and Retributive Punishment
  
• LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
  

February 4 - Self-defense theory

• Farrell,  The Justification of General Deterrence 
• Quinn, The Right to Threaten and the Right to Punish [JSTOR]

Incapacitation

February 11

• Schoeman, On Incapacitating the Dangerous,  American Philosophical Quarterly 16
• Levitt, The Effects of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates
  
• Golash, Incapacitation (read section I.B)
  

Retributivism

February 18

• Murphy, Kant's Theory of Punishment [course packet]
  
• Morris, Persons & Punishment, The Monist 52, no. 4 (October 1968)
• Murphy, Marxism and Retribution
  

February 25

• Burgh, Do the Guilty Deserve Punishment?
  
• Sher, Desert [course packet]
• Dagger, Playing Fair with Punishment [JSTOR]

March 4

• Dimock, Punishment and Trust [electronic reserve]
• Matravers, Justice and Punishment [course packet]
  

SPRING BREAK

March 18

• Forgiveness  & Mercy,  chs. 1 & 2
  
• O'Neill, The Iceman Cometh (excerpts) [course packet]

Midterm due

March 25

• Hegel, Philosophy of Right (excerpt) [course packet]
• Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals (excerpt) [course packet]
• Forgiveness & Mercy chs. 3 & 4

Punishment and Anger

April 1

• Moore, The Moral Worth of Retribution [course packet]
  
• Berns, Morality and Anger [course packet]

April 8

• Murphy, Getting Even:  The Role of the Victim [course packet]
• Golash, Punishment and Anger [on website]

Moral Reform

April 14

• Duff, Expression, Penance, and Reform [course packet]
• Morris, Paternalistic Theory of Punishment, American Philosophical Quarterly 18, No. 4 (1981)
  

Restorative Justice

April 21

• Bushie, Community Holistic Circle Healing
• Golash, What if Punishment is Not Justified?  (Ch 8 in Course Documents on Blackboard)
  

May 5

• Final exam

Course help

What is a conceptual paper?
Paper-writing tips