Abstract

The study focuses on the phenomenon of crime-causing (criminogenic) law. It includes a review of related studies on such laws and their criminal side-effects, the change in the legislator’s liability for effects of enacted laws, and the effects of the legislator’s afflatus on the potential criminogenic effects of law. Of special concern are cases where the legislator is aware of the potential criminogenic side-effects of a new law but carelessly neglects them. The study evaluates the tool for detection of probable criminogenic effects proposed by a special EU study group. It is shown that the underlying assumptions in the creation of this tool do not ensure the detection of a significant portion of the ways in which a new law can cause criminogenic effects, and provides no sound basis for deciding whether to approve or to reject a new law