Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: There is a well-documented connection between adverse social conditions and crime. In the United States, those from disadvantaged backgrounds are far more likely to come into contact with the criminal-legal system, and these individuals are overrepresented in our country's prisons. Yet explaining why it is morally troublesome to subject disadvantaged offenders to harsh penal punishment, given their adverse backgrounds, is not straightforward. One popular explanation holds that states that allow injustice lose the authority, or standing, to condemn disadvantaged offenders. As appealing as these views seem, I argue that they ultimately collapse into a general critique of state punishment. I reframe the problem as one of moral desert, arguing that social disadvantage affects the moral status of criminal wrongdoing in ways that reduce what punishment disadvantaged offenders actually deserve.
DOI: 10.17615/cswk-7g53
Author: Mascobetto, Tabitha
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7162774793
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: