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2004 U. Ill. L. Rev. 363 (2004)
Reason, Results, and Criminal Responsibility

handle is hein.journals/unilllr2004 and id is 375 raw text is: REASON, RESULTS, AND CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY' Stephen J. Morse* In this article, Professor Morse provides new insights into the concept of desert in criminal punishment. Professor Morse argues that intentional action and forbearance are the only kinds of human conduct that can be effectively guided by the criminal law. The con- sequences of action, however, cannot be fully guided and are there- fore inappropriate predicates for desert. Professor Morse contends that a rational system of criminal law should focus solely on actions and should not impose punishment based on results. Professor Morse's action-guiding account of the law helps to ex- plain disputed areas of criminal law, including attempt liability, risk creation, causation, accomplice liability, strict liability, and the justifi- cations. After responding to the counterarguments of leading crimi- nal law scholars, the article concludes that a consistent subjectivism concerning criminal liability is both possible and fair. 'As you can plainly see, failed guidance is the cause the world is steeped in vice, and not your inner nature that has grown corrupt. _-Dante** TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction .................................................................................... 364 II. Persons, Reasons, and Responsibility .......................................... 367 t (c)2003 * Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology and Law in Psy- chiatry, University of Pennsylvania Law School. This article was presented at faculty workshops at Chicago, Fordham, N.Y.U., Seton Hall, Texas, USC, and Virginia, and at a faculty retreat at Penn. Thanks to Barry Adler, Scott Altman, Larry Alex- ander, Jody Armour, Ted Blumoff, Sherry Colb, John Gardner, Ron Garet, David Garland, Ed Green- lee, Kyron Huigens, Heidi Hurd, Jim Jacobs, Leo Katz, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, Paul Litton, Michael Moore, Stephen Perry, David Richards, Paul Robinson, David Rudovsky, Larry Sager, Stephen Schul- hofer, and Dan Simon for their gracious assistance, and to the members of the audience at the venues in which this article was presented for helpful comments. As always, my personal attorney, Jean Avnet Morse, furnished sound, sober counsel and moral support. ** DANTE ALIGHIERI, PURGATORIO XVI:103-105 (Jean Hollander & Robert Hollander trans., 2003).

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