scholarly journals CAPACITY, MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE CRIMINAL LAW

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-68
Author(s):  
James Slater
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Capacity Theory ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Complete Account

This article is concerned with the conflict between two theories of moral responsibility for wrongdoing, one of which I shall term the shallow capacity theory and the other the self-control theory. This conflict is of interest for two reasons. First, and fundamentally, it is important from the perspective of moral philosophy: in this regard, I will argue that the shallow capacity theory is incomplete, and as a result inferior to the self-control theory, which offers a complete account of moral responsibility for wrongdoing. Secondly, given the criminal law’s interest in moral responsibility and blame, I will argue that the self-control theory offers two important insights for the criminal law, insights that the shallow capacity theory does not provide. First, it offers the most accurate understanding of the moral significance of killing under provocation, and thus the best framework for understanding the partial defence of provocation. Secondly, it demonstrates that there is a need in the criminal law for a defence based on radical impairment of an agent’s capacity for self-control, and in so doing offers a vital insight into the notion of a partial denial of moral responsibility. It should be noted that these insights for the criminal law emerge from those features of the self-control theory that make it superior to the shallow capacity theory as a theory of moral responsibility.

Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility Volume 6

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Moral Testimony ◽  
Quality Of Will ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Standing To Blame

This is the sixth volume of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility. The papers were drawn from the fourth biennial New Orleans Workshop in Agency and Responsibility (NOWAR), held November 2–4, 2017. The essays cover a wide range of topics relevant to agency and responsibility: the threat of neuroscience to free will; the relevance of resentment and guilt to responsibility; how control and self-control pertain to moral agency, oppression, and poverty; responsibility for joint agency; the role and conditions of shame in theories of attributability; how one might take responsibility without blameworthy quality of will; what it means to have standing to blame others; the relevance of moral testimony to moral responsibility; how to build a theory of attributabiity that captures all the relevant cases; and how thinking about blame better enables us to dissolve a dispute in moral philosophy between actualists and possibilists.

The Generality of the Self-Control Theory of Crime

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-94
Author(s):  
David F. Greenberg ◽  
Robin Tamarelli ◽  
Margaret S. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Theory Of Crime

The Interconnected Development of Personal Controls and Antisocial Behavior

2018 ◽  
pp. 192-223
Author(s):  
Marc Le Blanc
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Antisocial Behaviors ◽  
Systemic Theory ◽  
Definitive Statement

This chapter describes a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and developmental theoretical journey inspired by Travis Hirschi’s book, Causes of Delinquency (1969). It first discusses the conceptual roots and meta-control theory that emerged from this journey. The chapter then presents a definitive statement of a systemic theory of the development of antisocial behavior—particularly the argument that the mechanisms and courses of the development of offending apply to all forms of antisocial behaviors. Next, the chapter specifies the content of an integrative personal control theory and the development of self-control and social control. It also reviews the mechanism of the developmental interaction between the self and social control systems based on the chaos-order perspective. Finally, this chapter discusses the importance of its personal control theory for criminology and sequels to this theoretical and empirical journey.

scholarly journals The self-control consequences of political ideology

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (27) ◽  
pp. 8250-8253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Clarkson ◽  
John R. Chambers ◽  
Edward R. Hirt ◽  
Ashley S. Otto ◽  
Frank R. Kardes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Task Persistence ◽  
Critical Difference ◽  
Attention Regulation ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
And Task

Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology and self-control is mediated by differences in the extent to which belief in freewill is endorsed, is independent of task performance or motivation, and is reversed when freewill is perceived to impede (rather than enhance) self-control. Collectively, these findings offer insight into the self-control consequences of political ideology by detailing conditions under which conservatives and liberals are better suited to engage in self-control and outlining the role of freewill beliefs in determining these conditions.

Methods and Measures in Testing a General Theory of Crime

2019 ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Michael Gottfredson ◽  
Travis Hirschi
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
General Theory Of Crime ◽  
Prior Record ◽  
Theory Of Crime

Self control is a consistent, robust, and substantial cause of crime, and the foundational facts and other dimensions of the self-control theory of crime have found remarkable support in behavioral science. However, not all scholars view the evidence in the same way, and there have been several challenges to the expectations of the theory that merit consideration. Some of these challenges are important for what they say about the limits and contours of the theory; others are important for what they say about the process of theory testing in modern criminology. This chapter discusses methodological issues in testing general theories in criminology. This is followed by a discussion on how to conceptualize control variables and antecedent causes for research. Next, the scope and domain of a theory as relevant to its validity are discussed. In addition, the importance of the definitions of self control and crime is presented. The roles of prior record and of versatility in theory testing are then examined. Finally, a discussion of the tautology issue in self-control theory is presented.

Coetzee and Eros

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen John
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Sexual Desire ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Good Action ◽  
Form Part

In Chapter 7, Eileen John uses Coetzee’s exploration of sexual desire to pose questions about the normative claims of moral philosophy. She argues that Coetzee’s fiction complicates Thomas Nagel’s conception of altruism by its insistence that desire must form part of any account of apparently moral motivation, of how we are moved by the suffering of others, and moved more broadly by the good. Coetzee responds in complex ways to Plato’s model of eros, granting its transformative power, while portraying it as too deeply interwoven with aggressive and self-absorbed drives to constitute an unequivocal path to the purely ‘good’ action. Coetzee’s treatment of the self relating to itself further engages with Nagel’s and Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the moral significance of solipsism. John argues that Coetzee’s fiction explores the limits of moral philosophy, and attunes readers to the elements of risk within moral life.

Relying on the self-control of instrumental others

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grainne Fitzsimons ◽  
Catherine Shea ◽  
Christy Zhou ◽  
Michelle vanDellen
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control

Taking the "self" out of self control: What dogs can teach us about inhibiting behavior

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Miller ◽  
Kristina F. Pattison ◽  
Rebecca Rayburn-Reeves ◽  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Thomas Zentall
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Control

The Relationship between Seeker and Spiritual Guide as portrayed in contemporary Western Sufi Autobiographies

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-332
Author(s):  
Kate Zebiri
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
New Age ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

This article aims to explore the Shaykh-mur?d (disciple) or teacher-pupil relationship as portrayed in Western Sufi life writing in recent decades, observing elements of continuity and discontinuity with classical Sufism. Additionally, it traces the influence on the texts of certain developments in religiosity in contemporary Western societies, especially New Age understandings of religious authority. Studying these works will provide an insight into the diversity of expressions of contemporary Sufism, while shedding light on a phenomenon which seems to fly in the face of contemporary social and religious trends which deemphasize external authority and promote the authority of the self or individual autonomy.

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