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What’s Really Wrong with Fining Crimes? On the Hard Treatment of Criminal Monetary Fines
The title of this post is the title of this interesting new paper authored by Ivó Coca-Vila now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:
Among the advocates of expressive theories of punishment, there is a strong consensus that monetary fines cannot convey the message of censure that is required to punish serious crimes or crimes against the person (e.g., rape). Money is considered an inappropriate symbol to express condemnation. In this article, I argue that this sentiment is correct, although not for the reasons suggested by advocates of expressivism. The monetary day-fine should not be understood as a simple deprivation of money, but as a punishment that re-duces the offender’s capacity to consume for a certain period of time. Conceived in this manner, I argue that it is perfectly suitable to convey censure.