Despite the notion's prominence, scholarship has yet to offer a viable account of the view that crimes constitute public wrongs. Despite numerous attempts, some scholars are now doubting whether a viable account is forthcoming whereas others are reeling back expectations for what the concept itself can offer. This article vindicates crime's public character while asserting the relevance of political theory in doing so. After critiquing prior attempts and clarifying expectations, the article offers a novel account, relying on both key doctrinal features and a deliberative democratic framework through which to interpret their public significance. In doing so, it demonstrates how this framework explains the public nature of censure, and ultimately argues that crimes are public wrongs not because such actions themselves necessarily wrong or harm the public, but instead because they are the type of wrong that the public has a stake in addressing. This gives rise to an understanding of sentencing as public decision-making within which citizens and their representatives decide how best to use public power to manage public interests.

中文翻译：

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作为公共错误的犯罪

尽管这一概念很重要，但学术界尚未对犯罪构成公共错误的观点提供可行的解释。尽管进行了多次尝试，但一些学者现在怀疑是否会出现一个可行的帐户，而另一些学者则对这个概念本身可以提供的东西寄予厚望。本文证明了犯罪的公共性，同时断言了政治理论在此过程中的相关性。在批判了先前的尝试并澄清了期望之后，本文提供了一个新颖的解释，它依赖于关键的教义特征和一个审慎的民主框架，通过它来解释它们的公共意义。在这样做的过程中，它展示了该框架如何解释谴责的公共性质，并最终辩称，犯罪是公共不法行为，不是因为此类行为本身必然是错误的或伤害公众，而是因为它们是公众有兴趣解决的错误类型。这使人们将量刑理解为公共决策，公民及其代表在其中决定如何最好地利用公共权力来管理公共利益。