THE RELEVANCE OF REMORSE IN SENTENCING: A REPLY TO BAGARIC AND AMARASEKARA (AND DUFF)

Abstract

[In their 2001 article “Feeling Sorry? — Tell Someone Who Cares: The Irrelevance of Remorse in Sentencing”, Bagaric and Amarasekara argue that offender remorse should be abandoned as a mitigating factor in sen- tencing because it lacks adequate doctrinal support. The present article argues that Bagaric and Amarasekara’s survey of reasons for remorse be- ing a mitigating factor is not wide enough, and, moreover, that their ar- guments against the reasons that they do consider are, at least, controversial. In the course of this reply, the present article also replies to arguments against remorse as a mitigating factor put forward by R. A. Duff.]