The Library

Feeling the absence of justice : notes on our pathological reliance on punitive justice

Tools

Chamberlen, Anastasia and Carvalho, Henrique (2021) Feeling the absence of justice : notes on our pathological reliance on punitive justice. Howard Journal of Crime and Justice . (In Press)

PDF
WRAP-Feeling-absence-justice-notes-pathological-reliance-punitive-justice-2021.pdf - Accepted Version
Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only - Requires a PDF viewer.
Download (495Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This paper critically examines our relationship with justice in contemporary western liberal settings, with a particular focus on why our pursuit of justice is intimately entangled with punitive logics. It does so by defining this approach to justice as predominantly pathological, in the sense that it follows a logic that is akin to that displayed in our contemporary sensibilities regarding bodily pain. We deploy the concept of ‘dys-appearance’ used by Drew Leder in the context of his theory of embodiment to discuss how, in western liberal societies, justice is primarily experienced and paid attention to when it appears negatively as a phenomenon; that is, we only become conscious of justice in our lived experiences through the painful and episodic experience of injustice. This phenomenological quality of justice, we argue, is intrinsically linked to how the pursuit of justice in these settings predominantly takes a hostile, punitive aspect.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
K Law [LC] > K Law (General)

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law

Journal or Publication Title:

Howard Journal of Crime and Justice

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

ISSN:

2059-1098

Official Date:

14 July 2021

Dates:

Date	Event
14 July 2021	Accepted

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Publication Status:

In Press

Publisher Statement:

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [FULL CITE], which has been published in final form at [Link to final article using the DOI]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions."

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

Funder:

Independent Social Research Foundation

Related URLs: