Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs: Comparative Liability in Criminal Law (Critical Perspectives on Crime and Law)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.85 (630 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0804755388 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 248 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-04-23 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
John Leubsdorf said new ideas in criminal law. This book should attract everyone interested in the rules of criminal law and their moral basis. Bergelson maintains that a defendant's degree of guilt should often depend on her victim's behavior. The law sometimes recognizes this, for example when a defendant acted in self defense against a rampaging victim. Bergelson shows that the same principles should apply elsewhere, proposing a new defense of comparative criminal liability. She carefully limits the defense so that it will not protect people like the rapist who blames his
"Her thesis raises a number of interesting and important questions .Bergelson develops these ideas with a clear eye for a good argument, and an impressive breadth of engagement."—Christopher Bennet, Criminal Law and Philosophy
"Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability? Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs criticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries.Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This innovative book supplies a practical and coherent