Online resource; title from PDF title page (Ebsco, viewed February 10, 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

We live in a society that is increasingly preoccupied with allocating blame: when something goes wrong someone must be to blame. Bringing together philosophical, psychological, and sociological accounts of blame, this is the first detailed socio-legal account of the role of blame in which the authors present a novel study of the legal process of blame attribution, set in the context of criminalisation as a social and political process. The book identifies the problematic and elusive nature of blame and contrasts this with the uncritical way in which it is often used in the criminal justice process.

BLAMESTORMING, BLAMEMONGERS AND SCAPEGOATS; Contents; About the authors ; Preface; 1. Introduction and the centrality of blame; The Case of Mrs Inglis; The Case of Baby P; Blamestorming; Blamemongers; Scapegoats; Blame; Preliminary reflections; 2. Blame in the criminal justice process; Pre-trial diversion: removing those of limited culpability; Pre-trial diversion: fixed penalties for particular categories of offence; Pre-trial diversion: the routine diversion of some types of criminal conduct to specialist state agencies; Mode of trial: deciding which court will hear a case

Justifying sentence: the normative backgroundJustifying sentence: the legal background; Conclusions: blame and procedural decision-making; 3. Blame and the blameless; The minimum age of criminal responsibility; Mental capacity; Justifications, excuses and circumstances precluding wrongfulness; Blame and luck; 4. Blameless crime; Motive: criminalising the well-intentioned; Recklessness: criminalising the risk-taker; Negligence and gross negligence: criminalising the incompetent; Strict liability: criminalising the blameless; Conclusion; 5. Blame amplification ; Offence seriousness

Shocking and extraordinary crimes6. Putting oneself in harm's way; Blame, gang membership and paramilitary involvement; Purchasing drugs, 'associating with criminals' and expanding the 'blameworthy'; Drug misuse and crime; Blame, intoxication and alcohol-related offending; Conclusion: voluntarily heightening the risk of offending; 7. Blame, punitiveness and criminalisation; The growth of blame culture and the need for scapegoats; From civil liability to criminal liability; From human rights to the International Criminal Court; 8. Blamestorming and blamemongers; Defining blame

Legal determinations about blameBlame and procedural decision-making; Blame, luck and diminished responsibility; Precursory conduct and the attribution of blame; Quantifying blame; Swiss cheese; The blamemongers: from process to value; Glossary; References; Case list; Index

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