Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Reviewing the Justifications and Functions of Criminalizing Crimes Against Chastity and Public Morality

Document Type : Original Article

Author
PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; Director of Research Affairs, Faculty Member of Shahre Danesh Legal Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
From the time of the debate between Lord Devlin (Devlin’s thesis: The Enforcement of Morals) and H.L.A. Hart (Hart’s response: Law, Liberty and Morality) concerning the justification for criminalizing merely moral conduct to the present day, this subject has continually been discussed in research on moral philosophy and criminal law, and remains a bone of theoretical contention. If we accept that states have a right, or even a duty, to protect morality through criminal law, what are the limits and constraints of this right and duty? Does merely permitting penal intervention in the realm of morality justify any form of intervention? Furthermore, can a utilitarian logic and function for criminalization in the moral sphere be conceived that has an objective nature and whose practical effect is observable in society, or is any form of penal incursion into morality justifiable only from a retributivist perspective or based on purely abstract benefits? Based on the findings of this research, conducted using a descriptive-analytical method, the theoretical denial of criminalization in the moral sphere does not prevent states from practically entering this sphere with the weapon of criminal law. Consequently, it is appropriate to constrain the scope and type of these penal interventions from the perspective of moral philosophy. On this basis, it appears that if the criminal protection of morality serves protective, symbolic, therapeutic, and responsibility-acknowledging functions, criminalization in the moral sphere can be permitted while observing three restrictive principles.
Keywords

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