In Getting Even, Charles Barton contends that revenge can be a form of justice that is constructive and healing for our society. Our current judiciary system, he explains, denies both victims and the accused an active role in the legal proceedings and resolution of their cases, reducing them to bystanders in what is essentially their own conflict. Barton does not argue for an individual's right to take the law into his own hands, but does show that the courts should recognize the revenge motive as legitimate and rational within the rules of justice.

By incorporating a system of regulated, just revenge into our ailing criminal justice system, our society will see the results of a more effective and humane system that works for victim, accused, and the community.

"Barton's Getting Even is the best book-length study available on the rationality and morality of revenge. It is marvelously lucid and deeply challenging."
—Graham Oddie
University of Colorado at Boulder

"Barton's highly readable discussion, with its effective dual philosophical and practical orientation, will prompt searching reassessments, both from philosophers concerned with the place of retribution in an adequate moral theology of punishment, and from those working for improvements in our criminal justice system."
—John Bishop
University of Auckland

"The vast majority of contemporary moral theorists hold that revenge and retribution are morally indefensible. Charles Barton subjects this view to a very close scrutiny, and develops a very serious, circumspect, and sustained argument in support of moral retributivism. This thought-provoking and very well-written book deserves to be widely read and discussed."
—Michael Tooley
author of Abortion and Infanticide

“Charles Barton does not argue for an individual’s right to take the law into his or her own hands, but rather advocates that the courts should recognize the revenge motive as legitimate and rational within the rules of justice.”
—The Midwest Book Review