| Qualities of Mercy: Justice, Punishment, and Discretion Contributor(s): Strange, Carolyn (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0774805846 ISBN-13: 9780774805841 Publisher: University of British Columbia Press OUR PRICE: $89.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 1996 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Criminology - Law | Legal History - Social Science | Penology |
| Dewey: 364.6 |
| LCCN: 97151117 |
| Physical Information: 198 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
