Pirates, prisoners, and lepers : lessons from life outside the law / Paul H. Robinson and Sarah M. Robinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robinson, Paul H., 1948- author.

Robinson, Sarah M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criminal law--Philosophy.

Criminal law.

Criminal justice, Administration of--Philosophy.

Criminal justice, Administration of.

Punishment--Philosophy.

Punishment.

Physical Description:

xii, 348 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

[Lincoln, Nebraska] : Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2015]

Summary:

"It has long been held that humans need government to impose social order on a chaotic, dangerous world. How, then, did early humans survive on the Serengeti Plain, surrounded by faster, stronger, and bigger predators in a harsh and forbidding environment? Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers examines an array of natural experiments and accidents of human history to explore the fundamental nature of how human beings act when beyond the scope of the law. Pirates of the 1700s, the leper colony on Molokai Island, prisoners of the Nazis, hippie communes of the 1970s, shipwreck and plane crash survivors, and many more diverse groups--all existed in the absence of formal rules, punishments, and hierarchies. Paul and Sarah Robinson draw on these real-life stories to suggest that humans are predisposed to be cooperative within limits. What these "communities" did and how they managed have dramatic implications for shaping our modern institutions. Should today's criminal justice system build on people's shared intuitions about justice? Or are we better off acknowledging this aspect of human nature but using law to temper it? Knowing the true nature of our human character and our innate ideas about justice offers a roadmap to a better society. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

What Is Our Nature? What Does Government Do for Us and to Us?

Cooperation : Lepers and Pirates

Punishment : Drop City and the Utopian Communes

Justice : 1850s San Francisco and the California Gold Rush

Injustice : The Batavia Shipwreck and the Attica Uprising

Survival : The Inuits of King William Land and the Mutineers of Pitcairn Island

Subversion : Prison Camps and Hellships

Credibility : America' s Prohibition

Excess : Committing Felony Murder While Asleep in Bed and Life in Prison for an Air-Conditioning Fraud

Failure : Getting Away with Murder Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Collapse : Escobar's Colombia

Taking Justice Seriously : Five Proposals

Postscript : What Are They Doing Now?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781612347325

1612347320

OCLC:

900445740