This collection of essays tackle a range of issues about the criminal law's "special part"--the part that defines specific offences. Topics include the scope of the criminal law: to what extent should it include offenses of possession, or endangerment? Regulatory offences and more specific offences such as murder, rape, domestic violence, bribery, theft and other property offences are also discussed. How crimes should be classified and the orthodox distinction between crimes of "basic" and of "general" intent are examined. Other issues concern the ways in which specific offences should be...

25 leading contemporary theorists of criminal law tackle a range of foundational issues about the proper aims and structure of the criminal law in a liberal democracy.
The challenges facing criminal law are many. There are crises of over-criminalization and over-imprisonment; penal policy has become so politicized that it is difficult to find any clear consensus on what aims the criminal law can properly serve; governments seeking to protect their citizens in the face of a range of perceived threats have pushed the outer limits of criminal law and blurred its boundaries. To think clearly...

The Criminalization series arose from an interdisciplinary investigation into criminalization, focusing on the principles that might guide decisions about what kinds of conduct should be criminalized, and the forms that criminalization should take. Developing a normative theory of criminalization, the series tackles the key questions at the heart of the issue: what principles and goals should guide legislators in deciding what to criminalize? How should criminal wrongs be classified and differentiated? How should law enforcement officials apply the law's specifications of offences?
The...