In the Realm of Criminal Law, Antony Duff seeks to defend the view (termed “legal moralism”) that we should criminalize conduct only if it is wrongful. Skeptics of legal moralism argue that this occurs all the time in supposedly overinclusive offenses whose definitions capture not only the kind of conduct that constitutes the target wrong, but also a wider class of conduct that is not wrongful prior to prohibition. An example is statutory rape. Duff, in response, contends that such offenses need not violate the requirements of legal moralism. Having exploitative sex with juveniles is obviously wrong even prior to its legal regulation (these wrongs are mala in se). But having non-exploitative sex with juveniles is also potentially wrong, inasmuch as it involves a violation of a prohibition that society has decided is justified for instrumental reasons (such wrongs are mala prohibita). While Duff’s analysis offers an ingenious explanation for why offenses like statutory rape need not violate the bare minimum requirements of legal moralism, it simultaneously exposes separate, largely unacknowledged, problems of fair labeling and proportionality. By combining in a single offense wrongs that are primarily malum in se with ones that are primarily malum prohibitum—a process referred to as “wrongfulness conflation”—we risk treating unlike wrongs alike, imposing disproportionate punishments, and blurring offense labels. And such problems occur not just in the context of statutory rape, but also with respect to a host of other supposedly overinclusive offenses, including various forms of sexual assault.

中文翻译：

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法律道德，包容性犯罪和不当合并问题

在《刑法领域》中，安东尼·达夫（Antony Duff）试图捍卫一种观点（称为“法律道德主义”），即只有在行为不合法的情况下，我们才应将其定为犯罪。对法律道德主义持怀疑态度的人认为，这种情况一直发生在所谓的包罗万象的犯罪中，其定义不仅涵盖构成目标错误的行为种类，而且涵盖了在禁止之前没有错误的更广泛的行为类别。一个例子是法定强奸。作为回应，达夫（Duff）辩称，此类罪行不必违反法律道德主义的要求。与未成年人进行剥削性行为显然甚至在其法律规定之前都是错误的（这些错误本质上是恶意的）。但是与未成年人进行非剥削性行为也可能是错误的，因为它涉及违反一项社会已经决定出于工具性原因而定的禁令（此类错误是禁令）。尽管达夫（Duff）的分析巧妙地解释了为何诸如法定强奸之类的犯罪无需违反法律道德主义的最低限度要求，但同时却暴露了单独的，很大程度上未被承认的公平标签和相称性问题。通过将本质上主要是违法行为的违法行为与主要是违禁品的违法行为结合在一起，这一过程被称为“错误合并”，我们冒着不同对待错误的风险，施加不成比例的惩罚，并模糊了违法行为的标签。这些问题不仅发生在法定强奸的背景下，而且还涉及许多其他据称过度包容的犯罪，