Through a detailed analysis that draws on work across philosophy, the
law, and social psychology, Criminal Testimonial Injustice shows that,
from the very beginning of the American criminal legal process in
interrogation rooms to its final stages in front of parole boards,
testimony is extracted from individuals through processes that are
coercive, manipulative, or deceptive. This testimony is then
unreasonably regarded as representing the testifiers' truest or most
reliable selves. With chapters ranging from false confessions and
eyewitness misidentifications to recantations from victims of sexual
violence and expressions of remorse from innocent defendants at
sentencing hearings, it is argued that there is a distinctive
epistemic wrong being perpetrated against suspects, defendants,
witnesses, and victims. This wrong involves brute State power
targeting the epistemic agency of its citizens, extracting false
testimony that is often life-shattering, and rendering the victims in
question complicit in their own undoing. It is concluded that it is
only through understanding what it means to respect the epistemic
agency of each participant in the criminal legal system that we can
truly grasp what justice demands and, in so doing, to reimagine what
is possible.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780192679031
Publisert
2023
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter