Qualities of mercy : justice, punishment, and discretion / edited by Carolyn Strange.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Strange, Carolyn, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Punishment--Great Britain--History.

Punishment.

Punishment--Canada--History.

Punishment--Australia--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Vancouver : UBC Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Qualities of Mercy deals with the history of mercy, the remittance of punishments in the criminal law. The writers probe the discretionary use of power and inquire how it has been exercised to spare convicted criminals from the full might of the law. Drawing on the history of England, Canada, and Australia in periods when both capital and corporal punishment were still practised, they show that contrary to common assumptions the past was not a time of unmitigated terror and they ask what inspired restraint in punishment. They conclude that the ability to decide who lived and died -- through the exercise or denial of mercy -- reinforced the power structure. The essays are an important contribution to current public policy debates. If today's move towards unyielding and harsher punishment proceeds, including campaigns to reinstate capital punishment, mercy alone will fail to neutralize the inequities of criminal justice. Only profound cultural shifts and transitions of sensibility have the force to stem the tide of unprecedented punitiveness.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Foreword""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""1 Civilized People Don't Want to See That Sort of Thing: The Decline of Physical Punishment in London, 1760-1840""; ""2 In Place of Death: Transportation, Penal Practices, and the English State, 1770-1830""; ""3 'Harshness and Forbearance': The Politics of Pardons and the Upper Canada Rebellion""; ""4 Savage Mercy: Native Culture and the Modification of Capital Punishment in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia""; ""5 Discretionary Justice: Political Culture and the Death Penalty in New South Wales and Ontario, 1890-1920""

""Punishment in Late-Twentieth-Century Canada: An Afterword""""Select Bibliography""; ""Contributors""; ""Index"";

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-13203-6

9786613132031

0-7748-5475-8

OCLC:

923443697