Anger, Provocation and Loss of Self-Control: What Does ‘Losing It’ Really Mean?

Criminal Law and Philosophy 13 (2):247-269 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Drawing on recent research in the philosophy of the emotions and empirical evidence from social psychology, this paper argues that the concept of loss of self-control at common law mischaracterises the relationship between the emotions and their effects on action. Emotions do not undermine reason in the ways offenders describe ; nor do they compel people to act in ways they cannot control. As such, the idea of ‘loss of self-control’ is an inaccurate and misleading description of the psychological mechanisms at play in cases of emotionally motivated killing, where there may not be any ‘loss of self-control’ as such.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Self-control in the modern provocation defence.Richard Holton & Stephen Shute - 2005 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 27 (1):49-73.
Mitigating Murder.Andrew Cornford - 2016 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 10 (1):31-44.
Taking the heat out of provocation.S. Gough - 1999 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 19 (3):481-494.
Reshaping the Subjective Element in the Provocation Defence.Jeremy Horder - 2005 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 25 (1):123-140.
Losing Thomas & Ella: A Father’s Story.Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower - 2017 - Journal of Medical Humanities 38 (3):215-230.
Anger and the virtues: a critical study in virtue individuation.Ryan West - 2016 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 46 (6):877-897.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-05-31

Downloads
89 (#175,742)

6 months
5 (#246,492)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Emotions and Choice.Robert C. Solomon - 1973 - Review of Metaphysics 27 (1):20 - 41.
Transitional Anger.Martha C. Nussbaum - 2015 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1 (1):41--56.
Killing in the heat of passion.Marcia Baron - 2004 - In Cheshire Calhoun (ed.), Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers. Oxford University Press. pp. 353--378.
Gender issues in the criminal law.Marcia Baron - 2011 - In John Deigh & David Dolinko (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of the Criminal Law. Oxford University Press.

Add more references