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Criminology as peacemaking – “Empathy works, obedience doesn’t.�?

Pepinsky, Harold E.
June 4, 2015

Source: (1998) Draft (online). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.

As against making war on crime and violence, Pepinsky advocates peacemaking to supplant violence, to establish safety in the face of violence. This occurs when people become responsive to the feelings and needs of others. Pepinsky contrasts this empathy with what he sees as our cultural emphasis on enforcing obedience, beginning with our childrearing practices, an emphasis that leads to habits of deception and dissociation from feelings, habits that preclude empathy and lead to violence. On the basis of all of this, Pepinsky discusses empathy, remorse, obedience, and patterns of violence.

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