Administration of Justice Crimes II: Offenses of Failure to Assist

Abstract This chapter is the second of the two chapters that discuss administration of justice crimes, which are crimes of interfering with or failing to support administration of justice. This chapter argues that disobedience offenses can take the form of offenses of failure to assist law enforcement. Such offenses show up in many ways, such as hindering prosecution, receiving stolen property, money laundering, failure to report crimes, and failure to register as a person with relevant criminal history. These are disobedience offenses because the commands do not invite individuals to make fine moral distinctions, and whatever the law demands may not be the best course to pursue all things considered. Yet the laws demand obedience and require assistance of law enforcement and punish certain failures to assist, and defying such demands may be considered a violation of the duty to support the state and the rule of law.