Abstract
This chapter looks at criminal justice through a Buddhist contemplative lens and works at two levels to relate it to dialectical patterns in the criminal and theories of punishment. The first is the self-healing of a criminal in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment and the other is the dialectic of three theories of punishment. Through the character of Raskolnikov we see a split personality who kills a money lender but also at times a noble and compassionate man, thus presenting a ‘dialectic’ in his behaviour. Running through the retribution, deterrence and restoration theories we need a dialectical methodology which is also a criticism of the dominant views of Emile Durkheim.
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Notes
- 1.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, 2007, Crime and Punishment, London, Vintage Books.
- 2.
Regarding the character of Raskolnikov, the author presents a split personality. He is at times morose, gloomy, proud, haughty and fanciful and at other times has a noble nature, and is compassionate and kind but slow in displaying his nature deliberately. The author has presented a kind of dialectic in his development of the character of Raskolnikov.
- 3.
Carvalho and Chamberlen (2016).
- 4.
M II, Sutta 86. Aṅgulimāla was from a good family brought up well, but at school others in the class were jealous of him and it was conveyed to him that the best way to have an excellent reputation was to make a garland of one hundred fingers. It is said that through sheer immaturity this idea misled a good boy who attempted this task and he became a serial killer and was in need of one more finger when he confronted the Buddha on the road. However much he attempted to get close to the Buddha, while walking on this road, the distance remained the same and Aṅgulimāla shouted at the Buddha , ‘Hey man you are running’, to which the Buddha replied that it was a long time since he had stopped running in the stream of saṃsāra. This was the background conversation that led to the transformation of Aṅgulimāla and his ultimate liberation.
- 5.
In a book entitled The Buddhist Jataka Stories and the Russian Novel by Martin Wickramasinghe (2007), page 79, Nawala, Nanila, observes: ‘But to the Indian Buddhist reader, the conflict in Dostoevsky is not an aberration, and his saintly characters are not pathological, but normal human beings who are psychologically nearer to the mystics of Ancient India. Therefore it is not surprising that Dostoevsky’s characters should have affinities to the Jataka Stories´.
- 6.
Carvalho and Chamberlen (2016).
- 7.
Emile Durkheim, 1975, ‘The Laws of Penal Evolution’, in Economy and Society 2 (3), pp. 285–308.
- 8.
M II, Sutta 86.
- 9.
- 10.
Ravi Shankar Singh 2012, The Teachings of the Buddha and Good Governance in Modern India: A Socioeconomic Analysis, Perth, Buddhism and Australia, Conference.
- 11.
The cakkavattin is an ideal universal ruler who governs with a moral and benevolent perspective.
- 12.
D II, 173; D III, 163.
- 13.
M I, 414.
- 14.
D III, 69–72.
- 15.
David Loy, n.d., Healing Justice: A Buddhist Perspective, UN Zen Occidental, Internet.
- 16.
The Mindful Justice Initiative Report, 2016, Prison Mindful Institute and the Center for Mindfulness and Criminal Justice (USA).
- 17.
The Mindful Justice Initiative Report (2016), p. 4.
- 18.
Dostoevsky Fyodor, 2007 Crime and Punishment, London: Vintage Books.
References
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———. 2013. The Rules of Sociological Method. In Durkheim and the Law, ed. S. Lukes and A. Scull. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fyodor Dostoevsky. 2007. Crime and Punishment. London: Vintage Books.
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Loy, David R. 2000. How to Reform a Serial Killer: The Buddhist Approach to Restorative Justice. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7: 145–168.
———. n.d. Healing Justice: A Buddhist Perspective. UN Zen Occidental. http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-MISC/101786.htm
Singh, Ravi Shankar. 2012. The Teachings of the Buddha and Good Governance in Modern India: A Socioeconomic Analysis. Buddhism and Australia, Conference, Perth. http://www.buddhismandaustralia.com/ba/index.php/The_Teachings_of_Buddha_and_Good_Governance_in_Modern_India:_A_Socio-Economic_Analysis_by_Ravi_Shankar_Singh
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Wickramasinghe, Martin. 2007. The Buddhist Jataka Stories and the Russian Novel, 2005. Sri Lanka: Sarasa Ltd.
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de Silva, P. (2017). Criminal Justice Through a Buddhist Contemplative Path. In: The Psychology of Buddhism in Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69029-2_5
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