Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

GRADUATE WORKSHOP - Punishment and the State

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

College Hall, Room 209 (Accessibility)
Lunch provided.

All attendees are encouraged to read the papers, available here:

Sarah Cate (Political Science, UPenn): Possibilities for Decarceration: Juvenile Justice Reform in California (PDF) and Robert Hoffman (Philosophy, UPenn): A History of Violence: Distinguishing War and Punishment in Liberal States (PDF)


THIS MONTH'S PAPERS, on the theme "Punishment and the State," shed light on punishment from two perspectives: The philosophical and legal underpinnings of the state’s authority to punish, and an institutional perspective on incarceration.

Robert Hoffman (Philosophy, UPenn):
"A History of Violence: Distinguishing War and Punishment in Liberal States"
Hoffman looks at the philosophical and legal underpinnings of the state’s authority to punish wrongdoing. His paper argues that it is possible to explain punishment without basing it on the state’s right to defend itself against external enemies. By modifying a Rousseauian-style account of the social contract to include two separate tiers of offenses, liberal states can conceptually divide the institutions of war and punishment. 

Sarah Cate (Political Science, UPenn):
"Possibilities for Decarceration: Juvenile Justice Reform in California"
Cate considers the possibilities of decarceration and its consequences in the United States juvenile justice system today. Her paper shows that while there are opportunities for decarceration today, the terms on which these changes are being made are entrenching the very ideological underpinnings of the system that has reproduced inequalities and abuses of juveniles for over a century.