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

When should we make use of the criminal law? Suppose that a responsible legislature seeks to enact a morally justifiable range of criminal prohibitions. What criteria should it apply when deciding whether to proscribe conduct? Crimes, Harms and Wrongs is a philosophical analysis of the nature, significance, and ethical limits of criminalisation. The book explores the scope and moral boundaries of harm-based prohibitions, proscriptions of offensive behavior, and 'paternalistic' prohibitions aimed at preventing self-harm. The aim is to develop guiding principles for these various grounds of State prohibition, including an analysis of the constraints and mediating factors that weigh for and against criminalisation. Both of the book's authors have written extensively in the field. In Crimes, Harms and Wrongs, they have reworked a number of well-known essays and added several important new ones to produce an integrated, accessible, philosophically sophisticated account that will be of great interest to legal academics, philosophers, and advanced students alike.