Beyond the Special Part
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
3-1-2010
Abstract
This chapter argues that contemporary criminal codes do a poor job of capturing what it is that makes state punishment truly deserved. It proposes a radical rewriting of criminal codes, which would eliminate negligence as a basis for criminal liability, abolish liability for incomplete attempts, and replace detailed offence definitions and hierarchically arranged mens rea terms with a streamlined standard according to which people would be subject to deserved punishment when they show ‘insufficient concern for others’, defined as risking harm to others for insufficiently good reasons.
Keywords
criminal law, state punishment, negligence, criminal liability
Publication Title
Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law
Repository Citation
Ferzan, Kimberly and Alexander, Larry, "Beyond the Special Part" (2010). Book Chapters. 17.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_chapters/17
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559152.003.0012
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559152.003.0012