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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Crime, Jurisdiction, and Judgment: Law, Authority, and the Moral Structure of Criminal Responsibility

Crime, Jurisdiction, and Judgment: Law, Authority, and the Moral Structure of Criminal Responsibility

Sayles, S. C.

Paperback

Criminology

ISBN13: 9798251524406
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 10 2026
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.64 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Crime, Jurisdiction, and Judgment
Law, Authority, and the Moral Structure of Criminal Responsibility

Modern societies possess vast systems of criminal law, powerful policing institutions, and complex courts designed to administer justice. Yet the deeper foundations of criminal responsibility are rarely examined. Why is an act a crime rather than merely prohibited behaviour? What gives courts the authority to judge? And why do societies treat certain violations-such as theft, fraud, violence, and deception-as intolerable threats to social order?

In Crime, Jurisdiction, and Judgment, S. C. Sayles argues that crime cannot be understood merely as behaviour, pathology, or social construction. Crime is a jurisdictional violation within a moral order. Every criminal act represents the breaking of an obligation grounded in legitimate authority. That violation introduces disorder into the relational structure that allows society to function, and it therefore requires authoritative judgment to restore order.

Drawing from Sayles's wider philosophical corpus-including Jurisdictionalism, Philosophical Jurisdiction, Propositional Ethics, Marriage Before Law, The War Against Reality, and The Crisis of Trust-this book develops a unified philosophy of crime and justice. It shows that criminal law is not merely a technical system of rules but a moral architecture linking authority, obligation, violation, judgment, and restoration.

At the heart of the work lies a simple but powerful insight:

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