申論題

   What do you do when somebody has done you wrong? Do you blame or do you forgive? When 59 with crime, especially those that lie on the more severe end of the spectrum and cause victims terrible psychological or physical pain or even death, people tend to blame. Indeed, increasingly intense public moral expressions of blame and calls for revenge have become 60 in our society; 61 , in recent decades, attitude toward punishment has witnessed a revival of the punitive tradition, in today’s world usually known as the justice model. 62 , people can and routinely do forgive others, even in cases of severe crime. Psychologists argue that both revenge and forgiveness are universal human adaptations that have evolved as alternative responses to exploitation, and, crucially, strategies for reducing the risk of future re-offending. We are naturally 63 of both capacities: to blame and get revenge, or to forgive and seek to 64 relations. We have a choice. Which should we choose? Drawing 65 evolutionary psychology, we offer a(n) 66 of forgiveness and argue that the choice to blame, and not to forgive, is both counter-productive to reducing the risk of future re-offending and 67 with the basic, political values of a broadly liberal society. We then sketch the shape of penal philosophy and criminal justice policy and practice with forgiveness 68 place as a guiding ideal, and suggest some broader social and institutional arrangements that may foster it.