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Students Zone / Questions / Chapter 20: Responsibility and Punishment

1. Should a reckless driver who kills be punished more severely than one who is lucky not to kill?

2. Under what conditions is someone responsible for his or her actions?

3. Is it worse to cause something to happen than to let it happen knowingly?

4. Analyse the implications of Aristotle’s claim that ‘an act is compulsory when its origin is from outside, the person compelled contributing nothing to it.’ What are the strengths and weaknesses of this position?

5. Smokers sue tobacco companies for the harm done by smoking cigarettes during years in which smoking was made to seem a normal and healthy activity by the companies’ persuasive advertising. By the same token shouldn’t we at least excuse the violent criminal for his acts on the grounds that unlike all previous generations his life has been blighted by seeing more graphic acts of violence on television and movies than any member of a previous generation?

6. If we are conscious of the reasons for the way we act, is this enough for us to be responsible for the consequences?

7. Must the rehabilitation of offenders always conflict with the demands for deterrence and retribution?