NCJ Number
160268
Date Published
1995
Length
324 pages
Annotation
This book reports 18 original studies on a range of issues that relate to criminal law formulation.
Abstract
The issues selected for examination here are those where the community's intuition would be important to legal decisionmakers. Specifically, the studies deal with justified use of force, insanity, causation, complicity, risk-creation, omission liability, culpability requirements, duress, entrapment, multiple offenses, and criminalization matters, i.e., felony murder and sexual offenses. Many important differences between the current legal code and community views can be identified; one implication of this divergence is the possibility of reduced compliance among citizens who believe the legal code has lost its moral authority. 33 tables, 26 figures, 3 appendixes, and 68 references