Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Essay

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Washington University Journal of Law & Policy

Abstract

If criminal justice minimalism is a shared principle among criminal law scholars, it can help to clarify the quality of our disagreements. Every normative proposal in the criminal legal literature can be held to the minimalist standard—audited, so to speak, to account for the policy author’s minimalist claims. To this end, this Essay proposes a four-step framework by which to evaluate adherence to the minimalist principle, where each step serves as a hub for pointed scholarly debate regarding the path to minimalist criminal justice.

Keywords

Criminal Justice Minimalism, Rethinking Punishment, Minimalist Reform Debate

Publication Citation

Trevor George Gardner, Auditing Criminal Justice Minimalism, 78 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y 147 (2025)

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