Provocation and Responsibility

Provocation and Responsibility breaks new ground by drawing on historical and philosophical sources not normally linked in analysis of the criminal law, to provide the first detailed study of the effect of provocation on culpability in morality and law. It traces the fascinating history and colourful development of the legal doctrine of provocation, right up to present-day controversies over the scope of the doctrine's application in murder cases. These developments are illuminated throughout by setting them in the context of the changing moral and philosophical understanding of anger, its effect on responsibility, and the role it plays in the human character.

The early centuries of development; the 17th century; honour, anger, and virtue; anger as outrage; the rise of loss of self-control; justifying mitigation morally; other moral aspects of retaliation; excusing action in anger; anger, mitigation, and gender.