Counteracting Political Pressure to Criminalize Innocent Conduct

The U.S. Congress often crafts criminal legislation that is “misguided, unnecessary and even harmful,” is one of the findings in a recent report co-authored by the Heritage Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).

Currently, there is no effective check on overcriminalization. With over 4,450 criminal offenses in the United States Code and up to 300,000 federal regulations that may be enforced with criminal penalties, it is a safe bet that Congress has already criminalized all inherently wrongful conduct—such as murder, rape, robbery, theft, arson, assault, and battery—often more than once.

It is far too easy for members of Congress to score political points by casting themselves as “tough on crime,” even when the conduct being criminalized and penalized is not inherently wrongful and poses no clear danger to anyone, is how the report Without Intent describes motive behind the proliferation of laws, rules and regulations.

The two organizations see counteracting this pressure as a non-partisan issue and have recently released a major study with several concrete proposals for reform.

To read the Heritage Foundation blog, click here.

To read Without Intent: How Congress is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law, click here.

For more information on overcriminalization, visit Justice Fellowship’s resource page.