9): could we not say that only conduct that wrongfully harms or threatens to harm others is a suitable candidate for criminalization; that the criminal law is properly concerned only with harmful immorality?
Negative Legal Moralists hold instead that immorality constitutes only a necessary condition for criminalization: we must not criminalize conduct unless it is immoral, but its immorality does not give us any positive reason to criminalize it.
We must note, however, first, that this sets only extremely modest limits on the scope of the criminal law it does not even protect speech from criminalization, since speech certainly has an impact on the world.
If so, we might still be able to preserve some form of negative Legal Moralism, and hold that conduct that is not immoral cannot properly be criminalized; but we would need to look elsewhere for positive reasons for criminalization.
We should note too that a positive Legal Moralist as defined here need not be a negative Legal Moralist: one can believe that immorality provides a good reason for criminalization whilst also believing that there are other reasons, including reasons for criminalizing conduct that is not immoral.
Others argue that it is also under-inclusive, since we have good reason to criminalize kinds of conduct that do not cause or threaten harm (and whose criminalization is not aimed at preventing harm): conduct, for instance, that causes offence rather than harm (see Feinberg 1985; Simester and von Hirsch 2006, and 2011: chs.
Other legal and international issues concern the criminalization of knowing or unknowing transmission (more prevalent in the United States and Canada) and the rights of HIV-positive individuals to immigrate to or even enter foreign countries.
Those initiatives include using state-owned electronic media for the parties' political campaigning, making efforts to check the criminalization of politics, computerizing electoral rolls and providing voter-identity cards, and strictly adhering to a code of conduct that ensures fairness for all parties and candidates.
And if we have learned from the public reckoning with the racial impact of over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and law enforcement bias, we should heed our legacy of bias against black men in rape accusations.
One can disagree with that on policy grounds — there is a legitimate debate about whether de-criminalization is the best way to protect women's health and safety, or whether it just serves as a screen for the worst sort of trafficking.
The initiative featured numerous joint projects with the conservative Heritage Foundation, which also was determined to combat "over-criminalization".
