Criminal Justice and The Ideal Defendant in the Making of Remorse and Responsibility

Taking a uniquely interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach, this book examines the different ways in which the acceptance of responsibility and the display of remorse play key roles in our expectations of defendants and affect their management and treatment throughout the criminal justice system.

This book investigates how defendants are assessed by criminal justice decisionmakers, such as judges, lawyers, probation officers, parole board members and those involved in restorative justice. What attitudes and emotions are defendants expected to show? How are these expectations communicated? The book argues that defendants, at various stages of the criminal justice process, are expected to show a (more or less) free acceptance of guilt and individual responsibility along with a display of ‘appropriate’ emotions, ideally including ‘genuine’ remorse. It examines why such expressions of individual responsibility and remorse are so important to decision-makers and the state. With contributors from across the world, the book opens new comparative possibilities and research agendas.