The Science of Addiction and the Criminal Law

Authors

Stephen J. Morse, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolFollow

ORCID

Stephen Morse 0000-0002-7260-5012

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Although there is debate in the scientific and clinical literature about how much choice addicts have concerning the use of drugs and related activities, this article demonstrates that Anglo-American criminal law is most consistent with the position that addicts have substantial choice about engaging in crimes involving their addiction. It suggests that the criminal law’s approach is consistent with plausible and reasonable current scientific and clinical understanding of addiction and is therefore defensible, but it also suggests that the law is unduly harsh and far from optimum.

Publication Title

Harvard Review of Psychiatry

Publication Citation

25 Harv. Rev. of Psychiatry 261 (2017)

Repository Citation

Morse, Stephen J., "The Science of Addiction and the Criminal Law" (2017). All Faculty Scholarship. 2658.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/2658