Harmless Wrongdoing [Paperback]

The final volume of Feinberg's four-volume work,The Moral Limits of Criminal Lawexamines the philosophical basis for the criminalization of so-called victimless crimes such as ticket scalping, blackmail, consented-to exploitation of others, commercial fortune telling, and consensual sexual relations.

Comprehensive, systematic, argued with a rigour and scrupulousness unmatched, let along surpassed, in any comparable study....A colossal achievement, definitive and magisterial, a book which makes a permanent contribution to legal and political philosophy. --Times Literary Supplement

WithHarmless WrongdoingJoel Feinberg has completed a four-volume treatise...that argues brilliantly for a liberal doctrine close in spirit to the 'one very simple principle' defended by John Stuart Mill inOn Liberty. --Ethics

Full of detail and careful argument....a very subtle and nuanced book....The work is wide-ranging, and has valuer for those with interests in social philosophy and ethics as well as philosophers of law. --Mind

A serious, sustained, and surprisingly readable attempt to answer the question: Are we ever justified in outlawing behavior than doesn't actually harm anyone else? Proponents of moralistic legislation will find a powerful and thoughtful adversary in Feinberg. --Utne Reader

In its scope, attention to principle and detail, careful argument, and respect for psychological and social realities, this last volume, as well as its predecessors, provides a first-rate analysis of which conduct the state may properly declare criminal and why. Feinberg's achievement, moreover, is independent of whether or not one agrees with his analysis or adopts his conclusions. --Library Journal