Crime and isolation: Pereboom’s quarantine model, free will and retribution

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problem of criminal punishment. The main question of the ar­ticle is: for what purpose do we imprison criminals? The dominant approach to puni­shing criminals is based on retribution: if a person has committed a crime, knowing about the moral wrongness of his action, then he deserves punishment. This approach has intuitive persuasiveness. Critics argue that retributivist criminal law approach is largely based on a sense of revenge, is unable to ensure the deservedness of punishment and is not effective or humane. As an alternative, there are a number of models of punishment that are not guided by the idea of retribution. The article briefly examines consequentia­list theories of punishment. After that, the quarantine theory of Pereboom and Caruso is revealed, based on the idea of self-defense. Self-defense is achieved by isolating dange­rous members of society in prisons. This model promotes the development of non-prison methods of preventing recidivism and humanity towards prisoners. Moreover, this theory has a solid foundation – an extended right of people to self-defense.