Your new post is loading...
In legal philosophy, a distinction is often drawn between two broad categories of illegal act: those considered mala prohibita (acts that are technically illegal but not morally wrong), and those considered mala in se (“bad in themselves”). Acts mala prohibita are usually forbidden mainly in the interest of maintaining safety and order, whereas acts mala in se are prohibited both to preserve the social order and because they represent behavior that society considers fundamentally wrong. Classic examples of crimes mala prohibita would be jaywalking or hunting out of season, whereas most would consider murder and robbery to be mala in se. Penalties for mala prohibita are usually mild compared to those for mala in se, but the line between the two can be fuzzy and distinctions are debated at the margins.
