Question

Do you agree with each of Kohlber's stages of moral development and why or why not? Should motivation and moral reasoning be considered in the sentencing process such that crimes motivated by higher-level moral interest are subject to lesser types or degrees of punishment? If so, who determines what moral interests justify more lenient treatment?

Answer 1

A. PREMORAL OR PRECONVENTIONAL STAGES, which focuses on the self and is observed in criminals up to 13 years of age. In this stage, the behavior is usually motivated by anticipation of pleasure or pain. This is categorized into STAGE 1: PUNISHMENT AND OBEDIENCE: Where a criminal believes that Might Makes Right. It may conceive of him to avoid physical punishment and defer power. Its usual motives are to avoid punishment and force its will on others. This is followed by Stage 2: INSTRUMENTAL EXCHANGE:  Where the criminal isThe Egoist. Justice follows a primeval "Do unto others as they do unto you." The criminal usually weighs pleasure and pain.

B. CONVENTIONAL MORALITY, which focuses on the others, and is observed in one till the middle school, or till acceptance of the standards and rules of culture. This is categorized into STAGE 3: INTERPERSONAL (TRIBAL) CONFORMITY:  Where a child learns to value expectations of the society. For example, the value of “good” boy/girl, and conforms to it, and therefore, develops a majority understanding or common sense. Here the criminal prefers forgiveness to revenge. Punishment is mainly for deterrence. This gives way to STAGE 4: LAW AND ORDER (SOCIETAL CONFORMITY): The Good Citizen who respects fixed rules, laws and properly constituted authority and is responsible towards the welfare of others in the society. Justice usually demands that the wrongdoer is punished, The next stage is only slightly progressive, STAGE 4 ½: The Cynic which is a transitional stage that lies between the conventional stages and the post-conventional which leads to the attitude of "do your own thing" which was constituted as disrespect for conventional morality.

C. POST-CONVENTIONAL OR PRINCIPLED MORALITY, which focuses on justice, dignity and common good. It is categorized into STAGE 5: PRIOR RIGHTS AND SOCIAL CONTRACT: The Philosopher/King who logically evaluates moral action in specific situations and does not define them by reference to a checklist of rules. STAGE 6: UNIVERSAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLES: The Prophet/Messiah who acts out of universal principles based upon the equality and worth of all living beings. He follows what is known as the "Golden Rule".

Although there has been several criticisms of Kohlberg's theory by:

·         Carol Gilligan, who observed women to be socialized differently from men.

• B. Charles Bailey, who observed that Kohlberg's model values liberal worldviews and is biased against conservative worldviews.

Kohlberg’s observations further explained his gentility in human development in stages.

1. STAGE DEVELOPMENT IS INVARIANT AND SEQUENTIAL.

Higher stages incorporate the thinking and experience of all lower stages of reasoning into current levels of reasoning but transcends them for higher levels. Therefore one must progress through the stages in order, and one cannot get to a higher stage without passing through the stage immediately preceding it. Moral development is growing, and like all growth takes place according to a pre-determined sequence.

2. IN STAGE DEVELOPMENT, SUBJECTS CANNOT COMPREHEND MORAL REASONING AT A STAGE MORE THAN ONE STAGE BEYOND THEIR OWN.

Although higher stages can comprehend lower stages of reasoning in spite of finding it less compelling yet lower stages cannot comprehend higher stages of reasoning.

3. IN STAGE DEVELOPMENT INDIVIDUALS ARE COGNITIVELY ATTRACTED TO REASONING ONE LEVEL ABOVE THEIR OWN PRESENT PREDOMINANT LEVEL.

Since reasoning at one stage higher is intelligible and since it makes more sense and resolves more difficulties, it is more attractive.

4. IN STAGE DEVELOPMENT, MOVEMENT THROUGH THE STAGES IS AFFECTED WHEN COGNITIVE DISEQUILIBRIUM IS CREATED, THAT IS, WHEN A PERSON'S COGNITIVE OUTLOOK IS NOT ADEQUATE TO COPE WITH A GIVEN MORAL DILEMMA.

A developing person will look for more and more adequate ways of solving problems, which helps him grow morally.

5. IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE FOR A HUMAN BEING TO BE PHYSICALLY MATURE BUT NOT MORALLY MATURE

An important factor in development of moral reasoning is the regularity with which one encounters moral dilemmas, even if only hypothetically.

In a democratic and secular court of law motivation and moral reasoning is highly commendable due to the demand of the scriptures of different groups that employ criminality on different scales. There are three traditional factors that determine what moral interest justify more lenientt treatment. They are:

Consequentialist accounts contend that punishment is justified as a means to securing some valuable end—typically crime reduction, by deterring, incapacitating, or reforming offenders. Retributivism, by contrast, holds that punishment is an intrinsically appropriate (because deserved) response to criminal wrongdoing. Each type of account has been roundly criticized, on a variety of grounds, by theorists in the other camp. In an effort to break this impasse, scholars have attempted to find alternative strategies that incorporate certain consequentialist or retributivist elements but avoid the standard objections directed at each. Each of these accounts has, in turn, met with criticism. Finally, abolitionists argue that none of these defenses of punishment is satisfactory and that the practice is morally impermissible; the salient question for abolitionists, then, is how else (if at all) society should respond to those forms of wrongdoing that we now punish.