Criminal law and criminology: a survey of recent books.

• Author: Ferrall, Bard R.

E. CHRISTIAN BRUGGER, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MORAL TRADITION (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003) 281 PP.

The author examines papal pronouncements and doctrinal writings over the history of the Catholic church, and finds a consensus that the death penalty is a justified use of state power. However, in the past three decades, statements from Catholic church officials have strongly criticized the use of the death penalty, to the point that, according to the author, the Catholic church may be the leading institution in the world today opposing capital punishment. The author argues that this is not a sudden discontinuity, but is consistent with the deeper meaning of the church's teaching on the justification for punishment and on the circumstances when killing is morally permissible. The author also examined arguments by other philosophers on the purposes of punishment. These include retribution, defense of society (either through disabling past offenders or deterring future ones), reformation of the offender, vindication of the social order, and expression of moral disapproval. In the church's position, the author states, punishment must be grounded in retribution (i.e., in the injury and especially the blameworthiness of the offender). Improvement of society, however, remains an important consideration in determining the manner and level of punishment. A punishment, even if justified on retributive grounds alone, might not be justified if it does not improve society. The author also considers the church's position on killing in self-defense, in war, and in policing. Killing of the innocent is justified if it is the unintended, albeit foreseeable, consequence of an otherwise justified use of force. Proportionality, however, is a condition of justification--the use of force must be no more than necessary to achieve the purpose. Similar considerations apply to the imposition of punishment, and execution has been found a justified use of force by traditional church writers. It is distinguished, however, from justified killing in defense, because death is specifically intended; church writers have wrestled with the question whether the dignity of human life is thereby violated. The central answer came from Thomas Acquinas, who stated that some individuals have, through the wrongfulness of their acts, given up their own dignity. Social movements to abolish the death penalty began in the modern era, but church...