RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN BEAUVOIR’S PHILOSOPHY: ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGE IN NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Abstract

The desire for justice is a universal one. Either as individuals or collectively, the majority of humans desire that justice prevails over evil. When law breakers go unpunished, and even with their heads held up high, it encourages impunity, and those who are wronged are left with the pains of nursing their injuries. This challenge stares us in the face in Nigeria today, when it comes to dealing with issues of justice decisively. The challenge of lingering judgment in cases, especially in criminal justice, has been a thing of concern. This research is set to review De Beauvoir’s concept of retributive justice as revealed in her work “Eye for an Eye”. It will be applied in re-examine the processes of the Nigerian system of criminal justice, the society’s confidence in it. It shall employ the method of analysis in its investigations, and shall prescribe re-embracing retributivism as well as timeliness in the administration of criminal justice.