8 - State

Summary

This chapter provides the third and final investigation into relations of responsibility. As I show in this chapter, the position and function of the state in relations of responsibility is dynamic, reflecting changing social and political norms regarding the role of the state. I argue that there are four historic positions of the state in relations of responsibility, which are prominent at different points across the twentieth century and first years of the twenty-first century. In these relations of responsibility, the position of the state is less or more prominent, and its function is less or more elaborate – restricted to condemnation and prosecution, extending to prevention and deterrence, and to more elaborate functions concerning reconciliation with the past, preservation of the state and active strategies to avoid recurrence in the future. Each of these historic positions of the state posits a particular relation to individual responsibility for crime, revealing the ways in which criminal responsibility is distributed between individuals and the state and showing that such a division is dynamic.