@article{f3f5f32e4e274685b96aa6dc9a9c527a,
title = "Framing meaning through criminalization: A test for the theory of criminalization",
abstract = "Contemporary legal scholarship on criminalization focuses on evaluating the legitimacy of legislative decisions according to abstract standards of justice. In recent years, socio-legally oriented scholarship has attempted to do away with this focus by linking the theory of criminalization to the study of the real trends of criminal law enforcement. The article offers a critique of both approaches in what refers to the traditional area of application of the theory of criminalization, namely symbolic criminalization. It argues that whereas traditional papers discuss the legitimacy of the {"} enforcement of morality{"} through the criminal law, symbolic criminalization conflicts actually originate in disputes about meaning in plural societies. The real question that this phenomenon poses is thus not whether the enforcement of neutral morality is legitimate, but rather whether meaning framing through criminalization is.",
keywords = "criminalization, harm principle, legal moralism, legislation, symbolic conflict",
author = "Javier Wilenmann",
note = "Funding Information: *Javier Wilenmann is Associate Professor of Law at the Universidad Adolfo Ib{\'a}{\~n}ez. He received his doctorate in criminal law in the Albert-Ludwigs Universit{\"a}t Freiburg in Germany. His major research interests focus on criminal law doctrine and on the institutional and constitutional setting of criminal justice. Address: Diagonal Las Torres 2640, Office 217, Building B, Pe{\~n}alol{\'e}n, Santiago, Chile. E-mail: javier.wilenmann@uai.cl. The research was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through a fellowship program that took place in 2016 and via Grant No. 1170056 of the Fondecyt program led by CONICYT, the Chilean government{\textquoteright}s research agency. A preliminary version of this paper was presented in a seminar in the Universidad Adolfo Ib{\'a}{\~n}ez in January 2018. I am grateful to all assistants for the comments provided in that seminar. I am especially grateful with Vincent Chiao, who made very valuable recommendations to the same draft of the paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 by The Regents of the University of California.",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1525/nclr.2019.22.1.3",
language = "English",
volume = "22",
pages = "3--33",
journal = "New Criminal Law Review",
issn = "1933-4192",
publisher = "University of California Press",
number = "1",
}