SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1: Duff, R. A. (2010). A criminal law for citizens. Theoretical Criminology, 14(3), 293-309. doi:10.1177/1362480610369784

Abstract: Rather than appealing to penal parsimony as a constraint on the otherwise insatiable demands of the criminal justice system, we should develop a positive account of the proper aims of criminal law which shows parsimony, or moderation, to be integral to those aims. We can do this by developing a republican conception of criminal law as a law that citizens impose on themselves: such a law will be modest in its scope, and will provide a criminal process of trial and punishment that addresses those subjected to it with the respect due to them as citizens.

 

Journal Article 2: Davis, M. S. (2006). Crimes Mala in Se: An equity-based definition. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 17(3), 270-289. doi:10.1177/0887403405281962

Abstract: Legal scholars have used the terms mala prohibita and mala in se to draw the distinction between legally proscribed and morally proscribed offenses. The former are those offenses that are wrong simply because there exist formal, codified rules prohibiting them. Efforts to define mala in se, on the other hand, have resulted in vague, often conflicting meanings that leave the analyst with little but examples to serve as definitions. As a result, some have argued that the distinctions mala in se and mala prohibita be abandoned altogether. If one examines mala in se from an equity theoretical viewpoint, incorporating the concepts of intent and harm, it may be possible to arrive at a more understandable and useful concept.