{"id":6429,"date":"2022-04-29T06:15:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T13:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6429"},"modified":"2022-04-29T06:15:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T13:15:41","slug":"defense-oriented-academia-goes-over-the-cliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6429","title":{"rendered":"Defense-Oriented Academia Goes Over the Cliff"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing opponents of sober law enforcement and sentencing constantly tell us\u00a0 is that they are guided\u00a0 —\u00a0 but we aren’t\u00a0 —\u00a0 by “science” and “evidence-based solutions.”\u00a0 If you follow their views, you’re not merely “compassionate,” but, perhaps more importantly, “smart.”\u00a0 This is why “smart on crime” always turns out, if and when you can decipher all the razzle-dazzle language, to be merely soft on crime,\u00a0 —\u00a0 which of course is the point from the get-go but needs to be hidden.<\/p>\n

But dizzy with all their blood-soaked success of late,\u00a0 academia is getting less careful about hiding the pro-criminal nuttiness they try to pass off as “science.”\u00a0 Hence today’s entry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I found this<\/a> on Prof. Doug Berman’s blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, and I want to repeat it verbatim:<\/p>\n

The title of this post is the title of\u00a0this new paper<\/a>\u00a0on SSRN authored by John Humbach.\u00a0 Here is its abstract:<\/p>\n

Modern criminal justice presupposes that persons are not morally equal.\u00a0 On the contrary, those who do wrong are viewed by the law as less worthy of respect, concern and decent treatment: Offenders, it is said, \u201cdeserve\u201d to suffer for their misdeeds.\u00a0 Yet, there is scant logical or empirical basis for the law\u2019s supposition that offenders are morally inferior.\u00a0 The usual reasoning is that persons who intentionally or knowingly do wrong are the authors and initiators of their acts and, as such, are morally responsible for them.\u00a0 But this reasoning rests on the assumption that a person\u2019s mental states, such as intentions, can cause physical effects (bodily movements)\u2014 a factual assumption that is at odds with the evidence of neuroscience and whose only empirical support rests on a fallacious logical inference (post hoc ergo propter hoc).\u00a0 There is, in fact, no evidence that mental states like intentions have anything to do with causing the bodily movements that constitute behavior.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the mental-cause basis for moral responsibility, though it rests on a false factual inference, has enormous implications for criminal justice policy.<\/p>\n

While society must obviously protect itself from dangerous people, it does not have to torment them.\u00a0 The imperative to punish, a dominant theme of criminal justice policy, is not supported by evidence or logic, and it violates basic moral equality.\u00a0 ###<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Got that?\u00a0 “[T]his reasoning rests on the assumption that a person\u2019s mental states, such as intentions, can cause physical effects (bodily movements)\u2014 a factual assumption that is at odds with the evidence of neuroscience and whose only empirical support rests on a fallacious logical inference (post hoc ergo propter hoc).\u00a0 There is, in fact, no evidence that mental states like intentions have anything to do with causing the bodily movements that constitute behavior.<\/em> ”\u00a0 (Emphasis added).<\/p>\n

It’s now a matter of “science” and “evidence” that what you intend to do has no relation to what you actually do.<\/p>\n

Mind you, this stuff is in a published<\/em> academic paper written by Pace Law Professor John Humbach.<\/p>\n

Remember this next time one of these “we-need-to-be-evidence-based” types starts in on you about how we hayseeds need to “follow science.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing opponents of sober law enforcement and sentencing constantly tell us\u00a0 is that they are guided\u00a0 —\u00a0 but we aren’t\u00a0 —\u00a0 by “science” and “evidence-based solutions.”\u00a0 If you follow their views, you’re not merely “compassionate,” but, perhaps more importantly, “smart.”\u00a0 This is why “smart on crime” always turns out, if and when you can decipher all the razzle-dazzle language, to be merely soft on crime,\u00a0 —\u00a0 which of course is the point from the get-go but needs to be hidden. But dizzy with all their blood-soaked success of late,\u00a0 academia is getting less careful about hiding the pro-criminal nuttiness they try to pass off as “science.”\u00a0 Hence today’s entry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia"],"yoast_head":"\nDefense-Oriented Academia Goes Over the Cliff - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=6429\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense-Oriented Academia Goes Over the Cliff - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One thing opponents of sober law enforcement and sentencing constantly tell us\u00a0 is that they are guided\u00a0 —\u00a0 but we aren’t\u00a0 —\u00a0 by “science” and “evidence-based solutions.”\u00a0 If you follow their views, you’re not merely “compassionate,” but, perhaps more importantly, “smart.”\u00a0 This is why “smart on crime” always turns out, if and when you can decipher all the razzle-dazzle language, to be merely soft on crime,\u00a0 —\u00a0 which of course is the point from the get-go but needs to be hidden. 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