Determinism, the Collapse of Retributive Justice, and the Rise of the Epistemic Quarantine Model

This paper examines the implications of determinism for criminal responsibility and contemporary theories of punishment. It argues that if human actions are fully determined by prior causes, traditional retributive justifications for punishment become philosophically unstable. In response, the paper proposes the Epistemic Quarantine Model, a framework that shifts the focus of criminal justice from moral blameworthiness to risk management, public protection, and epistemic uncertainty. The work was prepared as an independent research project by a secondary school student with an interest in legal philosophy, criminal law, and theories of responsibility.