ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that three ancient frames of justice— group, desert, and life affirmation— continue to serve as the major policy frames from which the policies of human society emanate. It examines the cognitive foundations of modern social policies, deepens the analysis of the separate policy implications of the frames, and reviews how these frames and their policy implications are manifested in current social policies, particularly in the United States. Nondiscrimination is important for the life-affirmation frame of justice because the principle of life affirmation refers to respect for individual lives without exception. The chapter explores the separate policy implications of the individual-desert frame, other than its consequence, as justification for what is seen, upon scrutiny, to be group-frame policies. The individual-desert frame dominates criminal justice systems throughout the world. Perhaps it can be said that it is within the criminal justice system that the individual-desert frame of justice is carried out in its purest form.
