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Multiple-Offense Sentencing Discounts: Score One for Hybrid Accounts of Punishment

Hoskins, Zachary

Authors



Contributors

Jesper Ryberg
Editor

Julian V. Roberts
Editor

Jan W. de Keijser
Editor

Abstract

© Oxford University Press 2018. This chapter examines one intuitively appealing legal practice for which retributivist accounts struggle to find justification: multiple-offense sentencing discounts. It also considers several proposed strategies for justifying bulk discounts on the basis of retributivism. Three strategies are discussed: those that appeal to an absolute punishment maximum, those that appeal to interpersonal practices of blame and making amends, and those that suggest that perpetrators of multiple offenses sometimes have reduced culpability. The chapter argues that each of these strategies either is implausible as a ground for bulk-sentencing discounts or is plausible only insofar as it incorporates nonretributivist considerations into its account—thus is in fact a hybrid view. It concludes by looking at hybrid theories as an alternative, suggesting that such approaches not only can provide justification for bulk-sentencing discounts, but are also more plausible in general than is generally assumed.

Citation

Hoskins, Z. (2017). Multiple-Offense Sentencing Discounts: Score One for Hybrid Accounts of Punishment. In J. V. Roberts, J. W. D. Keijser, & J. Ryberg (Eds.), Sentencing for Multiple Crimes (75-93). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190607609.003.0005

Acceptance Date Oct 19, 2017
Publication Date Oct 19, 2017
Deposit Date Dec 2, 2018
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 75-93
Book Title Sentencing for Multiple Crimes
Chapter Number 5
ISBN 9780190607609
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190607609.003.0005
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1216584
Publisher URL http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190607609.001.0001/oso-9780190607609-chapter-5