Desert is a normative concept that is used in day-to-day life . Many believe that being treated as one deserves to be treated is a matter of justice, fairness, or rightness. ... Yet according to other theories, it has little or no role in justice.
What is the desert theory of punishment?
Just deserts is a theory which is designed to promote equality and fairness of sentencing for the imposition of a sentence. The principle behind just deserts is that the punishment should fit the crime . When such an instance occurs, it is said that the offender has received their ‘just deserts. ‘
What is moral desert theory?
It first considers the well-known thought that there are some people who are morally more deserving than others . It notes that a sufficient moral theory should include an account of moral desert. ... This chapter also discusses the thought that it is a good thing—other things being equal—if people get what they deserve.
What does desert mean in law?
Desert means to intentionally abandon a person or thing . Some common uses of the term desert in a legal sense include: ... The term “desert” in the context of child endangerment laws, usually requires a showing that the defendant had no intention to return for the child.
What is the moral desert Rawls?
According to Rawls, no one deserves anything obtained through the use of inborn assets. ... Now the view that some things are morally arbitrary because they are undeserved implies that there are things that would be deserved and thus not morally arbitrary.
What is retribution or just deserts?
In retribution as just deserts , the criminal offender pays back for the harm done and justice is restored through proportionality and fair process. By paying a debt, positive and negative experiences are distributed and social balance is restored (Weiner et al., 1997).
What is retribution theory?
Retributive justice is a theory of punishment that when an offender breaks the law, justice requires that they suffer in return, and that the response to a crime is proportional to the offence . ... However, the judgment of whether a punishment is appropriately severe can vary greatly across cultures and individuals.
Does desert mean deserve?
Despite its pronunciation, just deserts, with one s, is the proper spelling for the phrase meaning “ the punishment that one deserves .” The phrase is even older than dessert, using an older noun version of desert meaning “deserved reward or punishment,” which is spelled like the arid land, but pronounced like the sweet ...
Does desert have two S's?
Desert, spelled with one S, refers to a dry region. Dessert, spelled with two S's, refers to a sweet dish eaten after a meal . Sometimes, though, desert is an entirely different word referring to what you deserve, especially in the phrase just deserts.
What is basic desert sense?
The desert invoked here is basic in the sense that the agent, to be morally responsible , would deserve the blame or credit just because she has performed the action, given sensitivity to its moral status, and not by virtue of consequentialist or contractualist considerations.
What are the two meanings of desert?
1 : arid land with usually sparse vegetation especially : such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually. 2 : an area of water apparently devoid of life . 3 : a desolate or forbidding area lost in a desert of doubt.
What is the example of desert?
The definition of a desert is a dry, hot, sandy, usually barren and uninhabited area. An example of desert is the Mojave . An example of desert is Death Valley.
What defines a desert?
Deserts are areas that receive very little precipitation . ... One thing all deserts have in common is that they are arid, or dry. Most experts agree that a desert is an area of land that receives no more than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of precipitation a year.
Does desert differ from entitlement?
In philosophy, it is termed moral desert (as in moral deservingness). That is, as a member of society, what rights does one have to goods and benefits and opportunities? Contrast desert (pronounced “dessert”) with entitlement– the rights one has based on law, contracts, and agreements .
What is basic desert moral responsibility?
Understood this way, basic desert moral responsibility requires a kind of power or ability an agent must possess in order to justify certain kinds of desert-based judgments, attitudes , or treatments in response to decisions or actions the agent performed or failed to perform.
Where does the phrase just desserts come from?
From the late-1200s meaning of an action or quality deserving appropriate recompense , desert came to refer to that itself which is deserved, whether reward or punishment, with just desert emerging in the mid-1500s. Modern usage tends to come in the form “to get one's just deserts” – plural, and punishing.
