SSRN Home Search and Download Papers Browse Abstract and Paper Submission Subscribe to Networks View Briefcase Top Papers Top Authors Top Institutions

 

Abstract

 
 

Citations (1)

Beta

 
 

Footnotes (170)

Beta

 


 


Download | Share | Email | Add to Briefcase | Buy Hard Copy

Happiness and Punishment

John Bronsteen
Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Christopher J. Buccafusco
Chicago-Kent College of Law

Jonathan S. Masur
University of Chicago - Law School



University of Chicago Law Review, Forthcoming
U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 424
U of Chicago, Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper No. 230
U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper No. LE08-029

Abstract:     
This article continues our project to apply groundbreaking new literature on the behavioral psychology of human happiness to some of the most deeply analyzed questions in law. Here we explain that the new psychological understandings of happiness interact in startling ways with the leading theories of criminal punishment. Punishment theorists, both retributivist and utilitarian, have failed to account for human beings' ability to adapt to changed circumstances, including fines and (surprisingly) imprisonment. At the same time, these theorists have largely ignored the severe hedonic losses brought about by the post-prison social and economic deprivations (unemployment, divorce, and disease) caused by even short periods of incarceration. These twin phenomena significantly disrupt efforts to attain proportionality between crime and punishment and to achieve effective marginal deterrence. Hedonic psychology thus threatens to upend conventional conceptions of punishment and requires retributivists and utilitarians to find novel methods of calibrating traditional punitive sanctions if they are to maintain the foundations upon which punishment theory rests.

Keywords: punishment, utilitarian, retributivist, happiness, prison, health, deterrence, unemployment

Working Paper Series

Date posted: August 22, 2008 ; Last revised: June 23, 2009

Suggested Citation

Bronsteen, John , Buccafusco, Christopher J. and Masur, Jonathan S., Happiness and Punishment. University of Chicago Law Review, Forthcoming; U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 424; U of Chicago, Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper No. 230; U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper No. LE08-029. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1241008


Export to: Export Citation What's this?

Contact Information

Jonathan S. Masur (Contact Author)
University of Chicago - Law School ( email )
1111 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
United States
773.702.5188 (Phone)
HOME PAGE: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/masur/
John Bronsteen
Loyola University Chicago School of Law ( email )
Chicago, IL 60611
United States
312-915-7874 (Phone)
312-915-7201 (Fax)
HOME PAGE: http://www.luc.edu/law/faculty/bronsteen.shtml

Christopher J. Buccafusco
Chicago-Kent College of Law ( email )
565 W. Adams St.
Chicago, IL 60661-3691
United States
Feedback to SSRN (Beta)


Paper statistics
Abstract Views: 3,089
Downloads: 347
Download Rank: 22,967
Citations: 1
Footnotes: 170

© 2009 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use  Privacy Policy
This page was served by apollo 2 in 0.203 seconds.