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38 Crim. Just. Ethics 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/crimjeth38 and id is 1 raw text is: 


Criminal Justice Ethics, 2019
Vol. 38, No. 1, 1-18, https://doi.org/10.1080/0731129X.2019.1600289


I) Routledge
8  alr facs ru


ARTICLE



Retributivism, Penal Censure, and Life

          Imprisonment without Parole



       NETANEL DAGAN* & JULIAN V. ROBERTS

This article advances a censure-based case against sentences of life imprisonment without
the possibility of parole. Our argument justifies a retributive second look assessment of
long-term prison sentences. The article focuses on the censuring element of long-term
prison sentences while reconceptualizing penal censure as a dynamic and responsive
concept. By doing so, the article explores the significance of the prisoner's life after
sentencing (largely ignored by retributivists) and promotes a more nuanced approach to
censure-based proportionality. Policy-makers may welcome this approach as a way to
control excessive prison sentences while remaining within a  retributive penal
framework. Although we are making a general argument about the need for responsive
censure within a retributive sentencing regime, the case for this approach is particularly
compelling at the present time. Almost all Western nations, and particularly the US,
impose very lengthy, often life sentences of imprisonment for a wide range of offences,
thereby affecting large numbers of prisoners.

Keywords:  penal theory, retributivism, penal censure, life imprisonment without
parole


                              I. Introduction


Across the US, a sentence of life impri-
sonment   without  the possibility of
parole (LWOP)   is an accepted  legal
punishment.'  Indeed, almost  10%  of
US  prisoners are serving  a form  of


*Netanel Dagan  (corresponding author),
PhD, is adjunct lecturer at the Institute of
Criminology, Faculty of Law, Hebrew Uni-
versity of Jerusalem. Email: netadgan@
gmail.com. Julian V Roberts is professor
of criminology at the University of Oxford.
Email: julian.roberts@crim.ox.ac.uk


perpetual  life sentence,  including
some who  have been convicted of non-
violent offences.3 Federal law  pro-
vides mandatory  LWOP   sentences for
crimes such as kidnapping  or serious
drug  offences, and   also maintains
almost   twenty   recidivist statutes
requiring LWOP-usually for drugs,
violent or firearms offences. Various
Federal  mandatory   minimum sen-
tences prescribe more  than  twenty-
five-year sentences for drugs,  child
sexual  exploitation, or  violent or
drug  recidivists.4 LWOP is available


@ 2019 John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York

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