Book Review: Remorse, Penal Theory and Sentencing
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/203228441600700109 |
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| Author | Andra le Roux-Kemp |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
New Journal of Eu ropean Crimina l Law, Vol. 7, Issue 1, 2016 123
BOOK REVIEWS
Hannah Maslen, Remorse, Penal eory and Sentencing, Ox ford: Hart Publishing
2015, ix and 212 pages
e Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was genuinely sorry for what he
had done. is was the test imony of Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun made
famous when her book became t he basis for the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking.1
Prejean explained t hat she knew this because she could hear in Tsarnae v’s voice that
he regretted his act ions – his voice ‘had pain in it ’ – and when he talked about h is
victims, s aying ‘No one deserves to su er like they did ’, he ‘kind of lowered his eyes’
and ‘[his] “face registered ” the emotion of his statement’.2 Tsa r na ev hi ms el f, a er
having been convicted, ack nowledged his guilt and apologised to the v ictims and the
survivors of the att ack, saying ‘I am sorry for the lives I have taken a nd the su ering I
have caused you and the damage I have done.’3 However, when Prejean was asked by
Miriam Conrad , one of the defence attorneys, whether she would des cribe Tsarnaev
as ‘truly remorsef ul’, she replied, ‘No, I would not’.4
So what exactly is remorse? Can remorse, for example, be observed in terms of an
o ender’s actions? Can a critica l scrutiny of body lang uage during the t rial, or a
review of pos t-o ence conduct be indicative of t he presence or absence of remorse? Or
maybe remorse can be observed a nd quanti ed in terms of words, and particula rly
the content and temporality of statements a nd apologies made by the o ender. O r
more still, can remorse be observed and described in terms of emotions like shame,
guilt, contrition, hor ror, consternation, s elf-hatred, pit y, grief, regret , terror,
amazement, dist ress, fear and dread?5
Remorse is the topic of Hannah Maslen’s timely monograph entit led Remorse,
Penal eory and Sentencing, in which she not only adds her voice to the growing
body of literature on the topic,6 but also extends the debate in considering how the
1 Seelye Katha rine O. ‘Tsarnae v expressed sy mpathy for Boston Bombi ng Victims, S ister Helen
Prejean Says’ e New York Times 11 May 2015; available onl ine at www.nytime s.com/2015/05/12/
us/sister-helen-prejean-s ays-tsarna ev-shows-remorse-for-boston-b ombing.html?_ r=0.
2 Ibid.
3 Goldman, Ada n and Berman, Mark ‘Bo ston Marathon bomber Tsarnae v “Sorry for the lives I have
taken”’ e Washington Post 24 June 2015; available online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/
world/national-security/tsarnaev-to-be-formally-sentenced-today-in-boston-marathon-bombing/
2015/06/2 4/1cdf 4fe6 –1a6d-11e5- bd7f-4 611a60dd 8e5_ stor y.html .
4 Ibid.
5 Maslen, Hanna h Remorse, Penal eory and Sente ncing Oxford: Hart P ublishing 2015, p.5.
6 Most notably, Proeve, Micha el and Tudor, Steven Remorse: Psychol ogical and Juri spruden tial
Perspect ives Farnh am: Ashgate Publishi ng 2010; Weisman, Richard Showin g Remorse: Law and the
Social Control of Emotions Farnham: Ashgate Publish ing 2014; Smith, Nick Justic e through
Apologies: Rem orse, Reform, and Pu nishment New York: Cambridge Univers ity Press 2014.
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