The Five Worst (and Five Best) American Criminal Codes

Robinson, Paul H.; Cahill, Michael T.; Mohammad, Usman

doi:10.2139/ssrn.183290

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The Five Worst (and Five Best) American Criminal Codes

91 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2003

See all articles by Paul H. Robinson

Paul H. Robinson

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

This paper develops and attempts to justify criteria for judging the quality of a criminal code in performing its functions. It translates the abstract criteria into a workable code evaluation scheme, then applies the scheme to the fifty-two American criminal codes, ending with a ranking of those codes. Examples of good and bad code provisions are used in the discussion to illustrate the evaluation criteria.

Keywords: criminal code

JEL Classification: K14

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Robinson, Paul H. and Cahill, Michael T. and Mohammad, Usman, The Five Worst (and Five Best) American Criminal Codes. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=183290 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.183290