Claims for Recognition and the Generalized Other: The Reasonable Person and Judgment in Criminal Law.

Abstract

Résumé Dans cet article, j'examine l'image de la personne raisonnable dans le domaine de la loi criminelle. J'étudie cette image à l'aide des théories controversées des principes universels abstraits et des particularités de l'individu vivant dans des conditions de diversité. En me basant sur la dichotomie de Seyla Benhabib de l'autre concret et de l'autre généralisé, je soutiens que l'image de la personne raisonnable dans le contexte de la loi criminelle est à la jonction de l'abstrait et du concret, du normatif et de la raison empirique. Par conséquent, l'image de la personne raisonnable est souvent le point central de critiques des effets marginaux de l'abstrait universel de la loi criminelle. Par contre, dans certains cas, l'image de la personne raisonnable agit non pas comme un standard universel de conduite, mais comme un site à travers lequel des affirmations de reconnaissance des différents types d'expérience concrète peuvent être faites. Tandis que la personne raisonnable représente parfois un standard normatif général contre lequel des actions concrètes sont évaluées, la réalité concrète agit également comme un standard normatif contre lequel différentes présuppositions à propos de la personne raisonnable sont évaluées.

Individual Rights and the Negotiation of Governmental Power

“…One difficulty is that this test assumes that a distinction can be drawn between an accused and his/her circumstance: are age, education, propensity for anger, gender, culture, and family history all part of the circumstances that have to be taken into account? If we cannot carve out some authentic identity that stands apart from and individual’s concrete – embodied and social – reality, then we have nothing that can be usefully compared to the reasonable person for the purpose of making a moral judgment (Young, 2008: 25–26). Courts have sometimes responded to this dilemma by admitting – usually through expert testimony – discourses describing aspects of human experience that may be attributed to the accused, and then locating the reasonable person within them.…”

“…Courts have sometimes responded to this dilemma by admitting – usually through expert testimony – discourses describing aspects of human experience that may be attributed to the accused, and then locating the reasonable person within them. In Canada, this occurred most famously in the admission of evidence concerning the experiences of battered women ( Lavallee , 1990) but has also arisen in other kinds of cases (Young, 2008: 31). In these situations, the reasonable person acts as a site where governmental power is renegotiated by legal constructs of abstract rights.…”

Risk Classification and Municipal Policing in Canada: Altered Practice and Innovation

“…This agency is captured by the assignment of a risk score and a risk classification and the development of a risk management plan on which significant decisions about the individual to whom they relate and that individual's future are made. The effects of such practices and processes by these government actors are sociologically significant because they resonate beyond the institutions making up the criminal justice system and into communities where everyday citizens generally play the role of upholding the framework for normative behaviours against which certain populations are measured (Young, 2008).…”