Logan Alan C, Prescott Susan L
Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA.
The Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 Jul 24;22(8):1170. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22081170.
Famed lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) argued strongly for an early-life public health approach to crime prevention, one that focused on education, poverty reduction, and equity of resources. Due to his defense of marginalized persons and his positions that were often at odds with his legal colleagues and public opinion, he was known as the Big Minority Man. He argued that the assumption of free will-humans as free moral agents-justifies systems of inequity, retributive punishment, and "unadulterated brutality." Here, the authors revisit Darrow's views and expand upon them via contemporary research. We examine increasingly louder argumentation-from scholars across multiple disciplines-contending that prescientific notions of willpower, free will, blameworthiness, and moral responsibility, are contributing to social harms. We draw from biopsychosocial perspectives and recent scientific consensus papers calling for the dismantling of folk psychology ideas of willpower and blameworthiness in obesity. We scrutinize how the status quo of the legal system is justified and argue that outdated notions of 'moral fiber' need to be addressed at the root. The authors examine recent arguments for one of Darrow's ideas-a public health quarantine model of public safety and carceral care that considers the 'causes of the causes' and risk assessments through a public health lens. In our view, public health needs to vigorously scrutinize the prescientific "normative" underpinnings of the criminal justice system.
著名律师克拉伦斯·达罗（1857 - 1938）强烈主张采用早期公共卫生方法预防犯罪，这种方法侧重于教育、减少贫困和资源公平。由于他为边缘化人群辩护，且其立场常常与法律同行和公众舆论相悖，他被称为“少数派大人物”。他认为自由意志的假设——即人类是自由的道德主体——为不公平制度、报应性惩罚和“纯粹的暴行”提供了正当理由。在此，作者重温达罗的观点，并通过当代研究对其进行拓展。我们审视了来自多个学科的学者们越来越强烈的观点，他们认为关于意志力、自由意志、应受责备性和道德责任的前科学观念正在造成社会危害。我们借鉴生物心理社会视角以及近期呼吁摒弃肥胖问题中关于意志力和应受责备性的民间心理学观念的科学共识文件。我们仔细研究了法律制度现状的正当性依据，并认为需要从根本上解决过时的“道德品质”观念。作者们审视了支持达罗的一个观点的近期论据——一种公共安全和监禁照护的公共卫生隔离模式，该模式通过公共卫生视角考虑“病因”和风险评估。在我们看来，公共卫生需要大力审视刑事司法系统的前科学“规范性”基础。
