Pushing The Boundaries of The Quarantine Model: Philosophical Concerns and Policy Implications
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The quarantine model, recently proposed by Pereboom and Caruso, is one of the most influential models developed to date in the context of criminal justice. The quarantine model challenges the very idea of criminal punishment and asserts that nobody deserves punishment on a fundamental level. Instead, in order to deal with offenders, it proposes a series of incapacitation measures based on public safety concerns. In this article, we examine several objections to the quarantine model that demonstrate how, in our view, it can be improved. These mainly pertain to (2.1) the difficulty of reliably identifying dangerous individuals and consequently the need to base confinement decisions on probability, and (2.2) the potential for the quarantine model not to properly deter certain crimes. Three additional objections are raised with respect to (3.1) the rights that are potentially suppressed in the quarantine model; (3.2) the role of “genetic justice”; and (3.3) the difficulty it faces accommodating reasons-responsiveness. Whereas these objections do not constitute knock-down arguments against the quarantine model, they highlight issues that invite closer scrutiny, at least if it is to be considered as a credible framework for the development of viable policies in criminal justice.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By submitting his/her work to the Editorial Board, the author accepts, upon having his/her text recommended for publication, that Diametros applies the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to the works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees. Anyone may read, download, copy, print, distribute or reuse these articles without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. The author holds the copyright without any other restrictions. Full information about CC-BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
References
Aharoni E., Vincent G.M., Harenski C.L., Calhoun V.D., Sinnott-Armstrong W., Gazzaniga M.S., Kiehl K.A. (2013), “Neuroprediction of Future Rearrest,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (15): 6223–6228.
Caruso G.D. (2016), “Free Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior: A Public Health-Quarantine Model,” Southwest Philosophy Review 32 (1): 25–48.
Caruso G.D. (2020), “Justice without Retribution: An Epistemic Argument Against Retributive Criminal Publishment,” Neuroethics 13 (1): 13–28.
Caruso G.D. (2021), Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Corrado M.L. (2016), “Chapter One. Two Models of Criminal Justice,” UNC Legal Studies Research Paper: 2757078.
Corrado M.L. (2019), “Criminal Quarantine and the Burden of Proof,” Philosophia 47 (4): 1095–1110.
Douglas T. (2014), “Criminal Rehabilitation Through Medical Intervention: Moral Liability and the Right to Bodily Integrity,” The Journal of Ethics 18 (2): 101–122.
Farina M., Lavazza A. (2022a), “Mind Embedded or Extended: Transhumanist and Posthumanist Reflections in Support of the Extended Mind Thesis,” Synthese 200: 507.
Farina M., Lavazza A. (2022b), “Incorporation, Transparency, and Cognitive Extension. Why the Distinction Between Embedded or Extended Might Be More Important to Ethics Than to Metaphysics,” Philosophy and Technology 35: 10.
Farina M., Lavazza A. (2022c), “Why There are Still Moral Reasons to Prefer Extended over Embedded: A (Short) Reply to Cassinadri,” Philosophy & Technology 35: 67.
Farina M., Karimov A., Zhdanov P., Lavazza A. (2022), “AI and Society: A Virtue Ethics Approach,” AI & Society.
Farrelly C. (2016), Biologically Modified Justice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Hamilton M. (2015), “Risk-Needs Assessment: Constitutional and Ethical Challenges,” American Criminal Law Review 52 (2): 231–285.
Harcourt B.E. (2015), “Risk as a Proxy for Race: The Dangers of Risk Assessment,” Federal Sentencing Reporter 27 (4): 237–243.
Henry T.K.S. (2021), “Revolving Doors: Examining the Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Discretionary Decision-Making in Parole Revocations,” American Journal of Criminal Justice 46: 279–297.
Husak D. (2013), “Retributivism in Extremis,” Law and Philosophy 32 (1): 3–31.
Laqueur H., Copus R.W. (2022), “An Algorithmic Assessment of Parole Decisions,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
Lavazza A. (2019), “Moral Bioenhancement Through Memory-Editing: A Risk for Identity and Authenticity?,” Topoi 38 (1): 15–27.
Lavazza A., Levin S., Farina M. (2023), “The Quarantine Model and its Limits,” Philosophia.
Lemos J. (2016), “Moral Concerns About Responsibility Denial and the Quarantine of Violent Criminals,” Law and Philosophy 35 (5): 461–483.
Lemos J. (2018), A Pragmatic Approach to Libertarian Free Will, Routledge, New York.
Lemos J. (2019), “A Moral/Pragmatic Defense of Just Deserts Responsibility,” Journal of Information Ethics 28 (19): 73–94.
Levin S., Farina M., Lavazza A. (2021), “Dealing with Criminal Behavior: The Inaccuracy of the Quarantine Analogy,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 17 (3): 135–154.
Libet B., Wright Jr. E.W., Gleason C.A. (1983), “Preparation-or Intention-to-Act, In Relation to Pre-Event Potentials Recorded at the Vertex”, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 56 (4): 367–372.
Ligthart S., Tesink V., Douglas T., Forsberg L., Meynen G. (2023), “The Normative Evaluation of Neurointerventions in Criminal Justice: From Invasiveness To Human Rights,” AJOB Neuroscience 14 (1): 23–25.
Mustafa, M., Young, A. (2008), “Feud Narratives: Contemporary Deployments of the kanun in Shala Valley, Northern Albania,” URL = https://hdl.handle.net/2144/4349 [Accessed 28.11.2023].
Pereboom D. (2001), Living without Free Will, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Pereboom D. (2014), Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life, Oxford University Press, New York.
Pereboom D. (2017), “A Defense of Free Will Skepticism: Replies to Commentaries by Victor Tadros, Saul Smilansky, Michael McKenna, and Alfred R. Mele on Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 11 (3): 617–636.
Pereboom D. (2020), “Incapacitation, Reintegration, and Limited General Deterrence,” Neuroethics 31 (1): 87–97.
Pereboom D., Caruso G.D. (2018), “Hard-Incompatibilist Existentialism: Neuroscience, Punishment, and Meaning in Life,” [in:] Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience, G.D. Caruso, O. Flanagan (eds.), Oxford University Press, New York: 193–222.
Raine A. (2013), The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, Pantheon Books, New York.
Ryberg J. (2019), Neurointerventions, Crime, and Punishment: Ethical Considerations, Oxford University Press, New York.
Shamay-Tsoory S.G., Harari H., Aharon-Peretz J., Levkovitz Y. (2010),“The Role of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Affective Theory of Mind Deficits in Criminal Offenders with Psychopathic Tendencies,” Cortex 46 (5): 668–677.
Singh J.P., Desmarais S.L., Hurducas C., Arbach-Lucioni K., Condemarin C. et al. (2014), “International Perspectives on the Practical Application of Violence Risk Assessment: A Global Survey of 44 Countries,” International Journal of Forensic Mental Health 13 (3): 193–206.
Skeem J.L., Lowenkamp C.T. (2016), “Risk, Race, and Recidivism: Predictive Bias and Disparate Impact,” Criminology 54 (4): 680–712.
Smilansky S. (2000), Free Will and Illusion, Oxford University Press, New York.
Smilansky S. (2017), “Pereboom on Punishment – Funishment, Innocence, Motivation, and Other Difficulties,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 11 (3): 591–603.
Starr S.B. (2014), “Evidence-Based Sentencing and the Scientific Rationalization of Discrimination,” Stanford Law Review 66 (4): 803–872.
Strawson G. (1994), “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility,” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 75 (1–2): 5–24.
Tadros V. (2017), “Doing without Desert,” Criminal Law and Philosophy 11 (3): 605–616.
Waller B.N. (2011), Against Moral Responsibility, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.