Legal Punishment: Citizens, the State, and the Expression of Blame

Abstract

This paper was originally written for Bruno Guindon, Philosophy 326 course Topics in Law and Philosophy. The assignment asked students to examine a topic or issue of their choosing connected to papers discussed throughout the semester, and to reference at least one paper assigned as class reading. My choice to pursue the expression of blame was inspired by Clayton Littlejohn’s characterization of blame in his paper on the relation between truth, knowledge, and the standard of proof. The paper uses MLA citation style.