The Legitimacy of Judicial Responses to Moral Panic: Perceived vs. Normative Legitimacy

No. Panggil :	eja-21-0159
Nama Orang :	Gur-Arye, Miriam






Penerbitan :	[Place of publication not identified] : Taylor and Francis - Criminology and Law, 2018

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Abstrak	In some instances, the criminal justice system is affected by a moral panic; that is, by an exaggerated social reaction to an assumed threat to moral values. When influenced by moral panic, courts demonize defendants and aggravate punishments. Are such responses legitimate? This article argues that by contrast to legitimate condemnation of criminal conduct, demonizing defendants ought never be legitimate. The legitimacy of aggravating punishment requires distinguishing between the sociological concept of legitimacy (perceived legitimacy) and the moral concept (normative legitimacy). Aggravation of punishment in response to moral panic might be perceived as legitimate since it expresses public perceptions about the severity of the threat to a social value, even when these perceptions are exaggerated; however, punishments that are proportionate to such a perceived, exaggerated, threat to a social value are unjust and unfair, and therefore are normatively illegitimate. When the panic subsides, courts tend to return to lower levels of punishment. The subsidence of the panic enables one to realize that a gap between perceived and normative legitimacy has been created during the panic. Should and can the gap be bridged retroactively in order to gain full legitimacy? One way to bridge the gap is to grant clemency that will reduce the punishment of defendants whose sentences were exaggerated unduly during the panic. The article proposes a more radical mechanism that allows for sentence re-evaluation in cases of moral panic
Entri Tambahan Nama Orang
001 Hak Akses (open/membership)	membership
Kata Kunci	moral panic, criminal justice system, perceived legitimacy, normative legitimacy
ISSN	0731-129X (Print) 1937-5948 (Online)
Tahun Terbit	2018
No. Induk	eja-21-0159
Entri Sumber Data	Taylor and Francis - Criminology and Law
Entri Utama Nama orang	Gur-Arye, Miriam
Volume, Nomor, Tahun dan Hlm.	vol. 37, no. 2, p. 141-163
Barcode	eja-21-0159
Subjek Topik
Judul Utama	The Legitimacy of Judicial Responses to Moral Panic: Perceived vs. Normative Legitimacy
Kode Bahasa	eng
Sumber Koleksi	Perpustakaan Nasional