![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The problem is that vengeance becomes too disruptive, and spawns feuds which society is unable to tolerate. Unfortunately, despite the promising title, there's no discussion of an evolutionary explanation for revenge and its relationship to, say, freedom, equality, power, self-interest, respect, fairness and these, collectively, to "wild justice. Jacoby argues that societies have taken under the justice system crimes that were once left to personal vengeance. ![]() The rest of this book is a history of revenge as revealed in such arenas as literature, sexual relationships, and the criminal system. That middle ground is viable only when society is responsive to victims by acting "on their behalf against the victimizers." Rules that define the right balance are not locked down, but result from a dynamic tension whereby each society defines where that line is to be drawn. If we go too far in that direction, we risk losing that essential middle ground between the subjective need for vengeance and the objective need for social order. Jacoby sets the stage well for her topic in Chapter One where she describes the tension between revenge and all of its variations and society's role in containing it "in a manner consistent with the maintenance of our orderly and human society." Jacoby argues that we make a mistake if we deny (by treating it as taboo and burying it with euphemistic names) the underlying reality that constitutes revenge. Book description Jacoby argues that societies have taken under the justice system crimes that were once left to personal vengeance. ![]()
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