The Straitjacket of Proportional Punishment

Abstract This chapter aims to establish that the criminal law cannot explain the kinds of sanctions liberal states have reason to want to impose in response to violations of proxy crimes—crimes that target acts that need not be wrong (except as mala prohibita), but that are correlated with committing serious, culpable wrongs. Section 12.2 describes what proxy crimes are and gives an example. It also explains why there is no way for the criminal law to properly handle the example. Section 12.3 sets up the transition from this part of the book to the next, which develops the penal law.