We compare a net-revenue maximizing legislator's criminalization and punishment decisions to the optimal choices. The legislator over-criminalizes and over-punishes all criminalized acts when the degree to which it internalizes harms from crimes increases proportionally with the harm. An analysis of Eighth-Amendment review, in the form of upper-bounds on fines, reveals that it can both reduce fines to their optimal levels and remove the legislator's incentives to inefficiently criminalize low-harm acts in the first place. These results provide a rationale for asymmetric judicial review wherein upper-bounds are imposed on punishment, but lower-bounds are not.

中文翻译：

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为利润立法和最佳的第八修正案审查

我们将最大化立法者的刑事定罪和惩罚决定的净收入与最佳选择进行比较。当立法者将犯罪危害内化的程度与危害成正比时，立法者就会过度刑事化和过度惩罚所有犯罪行为。以罚款上限的形式对第八修正案的审查进行的分析表明，它既可以将罚款减少到最佳水平，又可以首先消除立法者将低伤害行为低效定为刑事犯罪的动机。这些结果为不对称司法审查提供了理由，其中对惩罚施加了上限，而下限则没有。