Crimes, harms, and wrongs: On the principles of criminalisation

Crimes, Harms, and Wrongs: On the Principles of Criminalisation

Volumn , Issue , 2011, Pages 1-237

  Simester, A P ^a,b   von Hirsch, Andreas ^c  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

^b KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85199669363     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (105)

1. M. Moore, Placing Blame: A Theory of Criminal Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).
2. R. Posner, 'An Economic Theory of the Criminal Law' (1985) 85 Columbia LR 1193.
3. A. von Hirsch, A. Bottoms, E. Burney, and P.-O. Wikstrom, Criminal Deterrence and Sentence Severity: An Analysis of Recent Research (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1999) ch. 2, referring to the crime-preventive effects of drink-driving prohibitions. By contrast, altering sentence severity of already-prohibited conduct seemingly has little if any deterrent impact: ibid., ch. 10.
4. Cf. the power to impose 'public protection' sentences, critiqued by A. Ashworth, Sentencing and Criminal Justice (5th ed., Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010).
5. A.P. Simester (ed.), Appraising Strict Liability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005).
6. Although see Öztürk v. Germany (1984) 6 EHRR 409, holding that Ordnungswidrigkeiten can be criminal in substance.
7. R.A. Duff, Punishment, Communication, and Community (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001) §§ 3.1-3.2.
8. G. Lamond, 'Coercion, Threats, and the Puzzle of Blackmail' in A.P. Simester and A.T.H. Smith (eds), Harm and Culpability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996) 215, 228-29 (emphases omitted).
9. A. von Hirsch and M. Wasik, 'Civil Disqualifications Attending Conviction: A Suggested Conceptual Framework' (1997) 56 CLJ 599.
10. A. Bottoms, 'Five Puzzles in von Hirsch's Theory' in A. Ashworth and M. Wasik (eds), Fundamentals of Sentencing Theory: Essays in Honour of Andrew von Hirsch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998) 53, 81-82.
11. J. Raz, 'Autonomy, Toleration, and the Harm Principle' in R. Gavison (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987) 313, 328.
12. P. Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1965) 12-13.
13. M. Moore, Placing Blame: A Theory of Criminal Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).
14. A.P. Simester (ed.), Appraising Strict Liability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005).
15. For discussion of this point, see J. Gardner, 'Complicity and Causality' (2007) 1 Criminal Law and Philosophy 127, 131.
16. John Gardner has asserted that 'it is the law's recognition of the [malum prohibitum] wrong that makes it a wrong': J. Gardner, Offences and Defences (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007) 239. We can be confident that he did not mean 'recognition, simpliciter' but rather (as we suggest here), 'recognition for good reasons'.
17. Two classic discussions are by A.M. Honoré, 'The Dependence of Morality on Law' (1993) 13 OJLS 1 and J. Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1980) 284ff.
18. J. Raz, The Authority of Law (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1979) ch. 1.
19. R.A. Duff, Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2007) 104.
20. S. Green, 'Cheating' (2004) 23 Law and Philosophy 137.
21. J. Gardner, 'Wrongs and Faults' in A.P. Simester (ed.), Appraising Strict Liability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) 51.
22. See especially §§ 5.1-5.2 and § 11.4(c). For more direct attention, see A.P. Simester and A. von Hirsch, 'Remote Harms and Non-constitutive Crimes' (2009) 28 Criminal Justice Ethics 89, 91-93.
23. Moreover, the burden of proving its purpose rests with the state, since it has control over the public record. See E. Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies (New York: Aspen, 1997). Contrast the 'rational basis' test that applies to most other government legislation, which requires only that the legislation be rationally related to a conceivable legitimate governmental purpose, regardless of whether this was the actual purpose of the legislation: Fed. Communications Commission v. Beach Communication 113 SC 2096 (1993).
24. H.L. Packer, The Limits of the Criminal Sanction (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1968) 262.
25. J. Raz, 'Autonomy, Toleration, and the Harm Principle' in R. Gavison (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 313, 327.
26. S. Perry, 'Corrective v. Distributive Justice' in J. Horder (ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (4th series, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000) 237, 256: 'The main reason that personal injury constitutes harm is that it interferes with personal autonomy. It interferes, that is to say, with the set of opportunities and options from which one is able to choose what to do in one's life.'
27. W. Chan and A.P. Simester, 'Duress, Necessity: How many Defences?' (2005) 16 King's College LJ 121, 123-27.
28. Thanks are due here to Bob Sullivan, co-author of 'The Nature and Rationale of Property Offences' in R.A. Duff and S. Green (eds), Defining Crimes: Essays on the Criminal Law's Special Part (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) 168, on which part of this section is based.
29. The discussion in §§ 1.4, 2.3(c); also, e.g., S. Smith, 'Towards a Theory of Contract' in J. Horder (ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (Fourth Series, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000) 107.
30. J. Coleman, Risks and Wrongs (New York: Cambridge UP, 1992) 350-54. Much the same can be said for breach of contract, which is a wrong in virtue of being a breach of D's promise, a voluntary (and reciprocated) obligation assumed to V. Underlying this wrong is the practice of exchanging enforceable reciprocal promises. Even if this practice is imperfect, its reliability promotes our well-being.
31. C. Grundy, R. Steinbach, P. Edwards, J. Green, B. Armstrong, and P. Wilkinson, 'Effect of 20 mph traffic speed zones on road injuries in London, 1986-2006: controlled interrupted time series analysis' [2009] British Medical Journal 339:b4469.
32. J. Kleinig, 'Crime and the Concept of Harm' (1978) 15 American Philosophical Quarterly 27, 32; discussed by Feinberg, Harm to Others 52-53.
33. B. Harcourt, 'The Collapse of the Harm Principle' (1999) 90 J Crim L & Criminology 105.
34. D. Husak, 'The Nature and Justifiability of Nonconsummate Offenses' (1995) 37 Arizona LR 151; Husak, Overcriminalization 167-68.
35. J. Jacobs, Drunk Driving: An American Dilemma (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1989) ch. 3.
36. Regarding the 'contagion' argument, see W. Bennett, National Drug Control Strategy (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1989) 11; for the loss-of-productivity argument, see Kaplan, above n. 1, and the discussion in § 4.2.
37. J. Raz, 'Autonomy, Toleration, and the Harm Principle' in R. Gavison (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 313, 328.
38. P. Roberts, 'The presumption of innocence brought home? Kebilene deconstructed' (2002) 118 LQR 41, 48, 55-56. We use slightly different definitions in this chapter.
39. J. Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980) 284ff
40. A.M. Honoré, 'The Dependence of Morality on Law' (1993) 13 OJLS 1. For discussion of this constraint, see D. Husak and A. von Hirsch, 'Culpability and Mistake of Law' in S. Shute, J. Gardner, and J. Horder (eds), Action and Value in Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993) 157.
41. This is part of the idea behind joint enterprise liability: see A.P. Simester, 'The Mental Element in Complicity' (2006) 122 LQR 578, 598-600.
42. R.A. Duff, 'Criminalizing Endangerment' in S. Green and R.A. Duff (eds), Defining Crimes: Essays on the Special Part of the Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) 43, § 2. Our usage of 'endangerment' differs from that of Duff, who excludes hostile 'attacks' from its scope.
43. A. von Hirsch, 'Extending the Harm Principle: "Remote" Harms and Fair Imputation' in A.P. Simester and A.T.H. Smith (eds), Harm and Culpability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996) 259, these considerations were analysed as an imputation issue. We now think the problem is one of liberty rather than responsibility, in that burdens of compliance may interfere too greatly with S's freedom of choice.
44. R. Dworkin, 'Liberty and Moralism' in Taking Rights Seriously (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1977) 240, 249ff. Admittedly, in ordinary language, V may loosely describe something that is disgusting (say, a foul stench) as 'offensive'. But even in ordinary language this usage is peripheral; hence, without more, V may not describe herself as 'offended'. See further the discussion of Duff and Marshall's argument, below, § 6.4.
45. A. von Hirsch, 'The Ethics of Public Television Surveillance' in A. von Hirsch, D. Garland and A. Wakefield (eds), Ethical and Social Perspectives on Situational Crime Prevention (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2000)
46. B. von Silva Tarouca Larsen, Setting the Watch; Privacy and the Ethics of CCTV Surveillance (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011).
47. T. Nagel, 'Concealment and Exposure' (1998) 27 Philosophy and Public Affairs 3.
48. R.A. Duff and S. Marshall, 'How Offensive Can You Get?' in Incivilities 57, 59-61.
49. D. Husak, 'Disgust: Metaphysical and Empirical Speculations' in Incivilities 91.
50. 'Autonomy, Toleration, and the Harm Principle' in R. Gavison (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987) 313, 327.
51. R. Delgado, 'Words that Wound: A Tort Action for Racial Insults, Epithets and Name Calling' (1982) 17 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties LR 133, 137-79.
52. L.B. Schwartz, 'Morals Offenses and the Model Penal Code' (1963) 63 Columbia LR 669.
53. J.J. Thomson, The Realm of Rights (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1990) 254-55, emphasising the variable and subjective nature of individual sensibilities.
54. J. Temkin, Rape and the Legal Process (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987) 1-6.
55. J. Wilson and G. Kelling, 'Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety' (1982) Atlantic Monthly (March) 29
56. Further G. Kelling and C. Coles, Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997).
57. R. Taylor, 'Crime, Grime and Responses to Crime' in S. Lab (ed.), Crime Prevention at a Crossroads (Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, 1997)
58. R. Sampson and S. Raudenbush, Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods: Does it Lead to Crime? (Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, 2001).
59. C. Lawrence, 'If He Hollers Let Him Go: Regulating Racist Speech on Campus' [1990] Duke LI 431, 439.
60. J. Raz, 'Free Expression and Personal Identification' in Ethics in the Public Domain (revd. ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995) 162f.
61. In the criminological literature, they are a type of situational crime prevention. For general discussion, see A. von Hirsch, D. Garland and A. Wakefield (eds), Ethical and Social Perspectives on Situational Crime Prevention (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2000), especially ch. 5.
62. T. Hörnle, Grob Anstössiges Verhalten: Strafrechtlicher Schutz von Moral, Gehfühlen und Tabus (Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann, 2005) ch. 6.
63. BVerwGE 64, 274. For discussion, see N. Hörster, 'Zur Bedeutung des Prinzips der Menschenwuerde' Juristische Schulung 1983, §§ 93-96.
64. P. Devlin, The Enforcement of Morals (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1965) 12-13.
65. J. Raz, 'Autonomy, Toleration, and the Harm Principle' in R. Gavison (ed.), Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987) 313.
66. A.P. Simester, 'Why Omissions are Special' (1995) 1 Legal Theory 311.
67. A.M. Honoré, 'Are Omissions Less Culpable' in P. Cane and J. Stapleton (eds), Essays for Patrick Atiyah (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991) 31.
68. 'There is nothing wrong with coercion used to stop one from stepping into the road and under a car.' J. Raz, The Morality of Freedom (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986) 378. More: it would be wrong not to.
69. R. Dworkin, Foundations of Liberal Equality (Tanner Lectures on Human Values, vol. 11, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1990) 77. See too Feinberg's discussion of moral harm in Harm to Others, 65ff.
70. G. Dworkin, 'Paternalism' (1972) 56 Monist 64, § 3.
71. J. Kleinig, Paternalism (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1984).
72. An even more indirect variant of situational crime prevention: cf. A. von Hirsch, D. Garland, and A. Wakefield (eds), Ethical and Social Issues in Situational Crime Prevention (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2000).
73. W. Edmundson, 'Comments on Richard Arneson's "Joel Feinberg and the Justification of Hard Paternalism"' (2005) 11 Legal Theory 285, 290-91.
74. J.R. Spencer and A. Pedain, 'Approaches to Strict and Constructive Liability in Continental Criminal Law' in Simester (ed.), Appraising Strict Liability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) ch. 10; Roxin, Strafrecht AT, 31-32.
75. B. Harcourt, 'The Collapse of the Harm Principle' (1999) 90 J Crim L & Criminology 105.
76. A. Du Bois-Pedain, 'Die Beteiligung an fremder Selbstchädigung als eigendständiger Typus moralisch relevanten Verhaltens-Ein Beitrag zur Strukturanalyse des indirekten Paternalismus' in A. von Hirsch, U. Neumann and K. Seelmann (eds), Paternalismus im Strafrecht; Die Kriminalisierung von selbstchädingendem Verhalten (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2010) 33, 42-43.
77. G. Lamond, 'Coercion, Threats, and the Puzzle of Blackmail' in A.P. Simester and A.T.H. Smith (eds.), Harm and Culpability (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996) 215, 233.
78. C. Roxin, 'Die Abgrenzung von strafloser Suizidteilnahme, strafbaren Tötungsdelikt und gerechtfertigter Euthanasie' in J. Wolter (ed.), 140 Jahre Goldtammer's Archiv für Strafrecht: eine Würdigung zum 70. Geburtstag von Paul-Günter Pötz (Heidelberg: R.v. Decker's Verlag, 1993) 177ff
79. K. Chatzikostas, Die Disponibilität des Rechtsguts Leben in ihrer Bedeutung für die Probleme von Suizid und Euthanasie (Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 2003).
80. J. Baurmann et al., Alternativentwurf eines Gesetzes über Sterbehilfe (Stuttgart: Georg Thieme, 1986).
81. A. Sen, The Standard of Living (ed. G. Hawthorn, Tanner Lectures in Human Values; Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987) 20.
82. J. Raz, 'Free Expression and Personal Identification' in Ethics in the Public Domain (revised ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995) 146, 162.
83. Neither does Mikhail Valdman argue that we can 'outsource' decisions about our deep commitments: M. Valdman, 'Outsourcing Self-Government' (2010) 120 Ethics 761.
84. J. Braithwaite, Regulatory Capitalism: How it Works, Ideas for Making it Work Better (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2008) 4: 'the reciprocal relationship between corporatization and regulation creates a world in which there is more governance of all kinds. 1984 did arrive.'
85. R. Macrory, Regulatory Justice: Sanctioning in a Post-Hampton World (London: Cabinet Office, 2006).
86. J. Raz, The Authority of Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979) ch. 11
87. E. Colvin, 'Criminal Law and the Rule of Law' in P. Fitzgerald (ed.), Crime, Justice and Codification: Essays in Commemoration of Jacques Fortin (Toronto: Carswell, 1986) 125.
88. J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1971) 239; Conally v. General Construction Company 269 US 385 (1926).
89. Kokkinakis v. Greece (1993) 17 EHRR 397, para. 40; T. Endicott, 'The Impossibility of the Rule of Law' (1999) 19 OJLS 1.
90. A.P. Simester and G.R. Sullivan, 'On the Nature and Rationale of Property Offences' in R.A. Duff and S. Green (eds), Defining Crimes: Essays on the Special Part of the Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005) 168, 188-90.
91. J. Gardner, 'Rationality and the Rule of Law in Offences Against the Person' [1994] CLJ 502, 504-06, 512-20.
92. E. Burney, '"No Spitting": Regulation of Offensive Behaviour in England and Wales' in Incivilities 195, 206. See further Chapter 12.
93. G. Richardson, A. Ogus, and P. Burrows, Policing Pollution: A Study of Regulation and Enforcement (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982).
94. D. Husak, Legalize This! The Case for Decriminalizing Drugs (London: Verso, 2002).
95. Kadish, Blame and Punishment: Essays in the Criminal Law (New York: Macmillan, 1987) 23, 57.
96. P. Roberts and A. Zuckerman, Criminal Evidence (2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010).
97. C. Wells, 'Stalking: The Criminal Law Response' (1997) Crim LR 463; Simester and Sullivan § 11.8.
98. J. Raz, 'The Rule of Law and its Virtue' (1977) 93 LQR 195, 199-200.
99. V. Tadros, 'Justice and Terrorism' (2007) 10 New Criminal LR 658, 683-86, concluding that 'individualized laws violate the basic right of citizens to equal treatment.'
100. J. Raz, 'Free Expression and Personal Identification' in Raz, Ethics in the Public Domain (rev. ed., Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995).
101. R. Ellickson, 'Controlling chronic misconduct in city spaces: of panhandlers, skid rows, and public space zoning' (1996) 105 Yale LJ 1165, 1185.
102. F. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (London: Routledge, 1944) 72
103. R. Fallon, 'The "Rule of Law" as a Concept in Constitutional Discourse' (1997) 97 Columbia LR 1, 8.
104. J. Raz, The Authority of Law (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1979) 214
105. F. Schauer, Playing by the Rules: A Philosophical Examination of Rule-Based Decision-Making in Law and in Life (New York: Oxford UP, 1991) 137-38.