Posted: Aug 04, 2019 12:25 pm
GrahamH wrote:
Is that an accurate picture of how things are? I don't think the UK justice system is oblivious to reasons for what people do nor are people written off as "a wrong 'un" or inherently deserving.
Where causes of actions can be identified I think they are considered as mitigation (or it's compliment - aggravation).
I don't know enough about the justice system to make any strong statements about it. Do you have any examples in mind?
Certainly much of the justice system has room to take into account prior causes for actions, I suspect this might be influenced by the many different examples of reasons that will have been given when cases are looked into in detail. However the broad political view of criminal justice still seems to be one of individual responsibility and punishment. Our new Home Secretary a few years ago argued to bring back the death penalty ffs.
And I think the notion of free will is also often an underlying assumption for the basis of neo-liberal politics. The idea that inequality is a morally justifiable result of individuals making the right or wrong decisions makes it easy to ignore that the systems we have in society might be simply unfair.