Type 1 Vera Bergelson, in her article Does Fault Matter, discusses the complicated questions which surround the conviction of innocent people via strict liability. Bergelson simplifies the dilemma at hand down to the question of “what defines a criminal wrong — social wrong or the perpetrator’s culpability?” (377). Bergelson points…

Type 1 Kant, in his work on the Metaphysics of Morals, distinguishes between two types of crimes: private which are those committed against individuals and public which are those committed against the commonwealth (140). Kant says that “the principle of punishment is a categorical imperative,” meaning that it should not…

Type 1 Module 5: What ends can we try to achieve by punishing those responsible for criminalized behavior? In Lessnoff’s article on Two Justifications of Punishment, he outlines two seemingly opposing answers to the question “what justifies punishment”: the retributive theory and the utilitarian theory. Lessnoff describes the retributive theory…

Type 3: Critical Engagement Module 4: When should we hold people responsible for criminalized behavior? Victor Tadros, in his article on Poverty and Criminal Responsibility claims that the poor — those who are disproportionally subject to the injustices of inequality — have a legitimate claim to subvert the role the…

Type 1 — Module 4: When should we hold people responsible for criminalized behavior? In her article entitled, The Power of Excuses, Paulina Sliwa endeavors to argue in favor of a unified understanding of excuses being “considerations that acknowledge that the agent acted wrongly but deny that the wrongdoing resulted from a lack…

Type 1 In the article entitled “Mens Rea by the Numbers” Yaffe discusses how the implementation of mens rea provisions — which would consider mental states such as intent, neglect, or recklessness — into laws fares in practical ways. numerical argument for consideration and the addition of mens rea in…

Type 2 In the joint work of Simester and Hirsch, they both explain and defend a type of wrongfulness principle, which states that “Conduct is deemed through its criminalization to be, and is subsequently punished as, wrongful behavior that warrants blame” (Simester and Hirsch 19). This should be the ideal…

Type 1 In David Brink’s article on The Nature and Significance of Culpability, he attempts to split the notion of culpability into three subsets and describe the differences between them. …

Type 1 James Edwards, in his article on Laws that are Made to be Broken, makes the argument for the identification principle which, though it has some shortcomings, upholds justice in the most logical and consistent sense. …