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Abstract

This article seeks to resurrect the “causal theory”‘ of the criminal law’s excuses. While the causal theory fits some of our most important and most humane moral intuitions in a way that no other theory of the excuses does, it gets little play in current criminal theory. This article argues that criminal theory should give causal theory a second look.

I. Introduction . . . . . 1117

II. Causal Theory Defined . . . . . 1119

A. The Claims Made by Causal Theory . . . . . 1120

1. The First Claim: The Excuse Accepts a “Causal Account” . . . . . 1120

2. The Second Claim: The Excuse Expresses the Control Principle . . . . . 1123

B. Causal Explanation and the Criminal Law’s Excuses . . . . . 1126

III. The Contemporary Critique . . . . . 1131

A. The “Overbroadness” Formulation . . . . . 1132

B. The Underlying Objection to “Partial Determinism” . . . . . 1133

IV. “Provisional Determinism”—A Plausible Partial Determinism . . . . . 1135

A. How the Critics Overstate the Case Against Partial Determinism . . . . . 1136

B. The Anxiety That Makes Us Partial Determinists . . . . . 1140

1. “Existential” Anxieties: Threats to Our Aspirations for Our Selves . . . . . 1140

a. Loss of “Control” . . . . . 1142

b. Loss of Stature . . . . . 1144

c. Loss of the “Self” . . . . . 1147

2. Social and Political Anxieties: Corruption of Attitudes Toward Others . . . . . 1148

a. Corruption of Social Attitudes . . . . . 1148

b. Corruption of Political Attitudes . . . . . 1150

3. Epistemic Anxieties About Causal Accounts . . . . . 1153

C. How Anxiety Makes Us Provisional—and Thus Partial—Determinists . . . . . 1155

V. Some Motivation for Revisiting Causal Theory: The Disturbing Features of the Compatibilist Criminal Law . . . . . 1157

A. Compatibilist Criminal Theory . . . . . 1158

B. Disturbing Features of the Compatibilist Criminal Law . . . . . 1162

1. The Arbitrariness of the Compatibilist Criminal Law . . . . . 1163

2. Artificial Criteria for Blame . . . . . 1167

3. A Morally Complacent Criminal Law . . . . . 1170

4. Unresponsive to Advances in Our Understanding of Human Behavior . . . . . 1172

5. Resistant to Criticism of Social Conditions . . . . . 1174

C. Shaking Off Compatibilism and Looking for New Alternatives . . . . . 1175

VI. Conclusion . . . . . 1176

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