A Criminal Law for Citizens

Citation

Duff RA (2010) A Criminal Law for Citizens. Theoretical Criminology, 14 (3), pp. 293-309. http://tcr.sagepub.com/content/14/3/293; https://doi.org/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.

Keywords
citizenship; criminal law; moderation; penal parsimony; republicanism; Criminal law; Punishment

Journal
Theoretical Criminology: Volume 14, Issue 3

People

Professor Antony Duff

Emeritus Professor, Philosophy