A critical assessment of Odera Oruka’s Theory of Punishment
View/ Open
Date
2012-12Author
Maweu, Jacinta Mwende
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This paper is a critical examination of Odera Oruka’s theory of punishment in his
Punishment and Terrorism in Africa. It argues that although Oruka clearly highlights
the weaknesses of the Retributionist and Utilitarian accounts of punishment and
therefore calls for the Reformist view of ‘treating both the criminal and society’, he is
mistaken in calling for the abolition of punishment simply because it cannot reform
the criminal. The paper contends that the reform of the criminal is only one major
function of punishment and not the only one, and so we cannot call for its abolition on
the basis of this single consideration. The paper further urges that Oruka’s theory of
punishment is rather deterministic: according to him, the criminal commits the crime
because of the criminal forces which he or she has very little control over, so that he
or she cannot be held morally responsible for his or her actions.
Citation
Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya (PAKPublisher
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya