ABSTRACT
This chapter examines four such challenges: the challenge to abolish criminal law, the challenge to rank multiple goals, the challenge to determine harm rationally, and the challenge to structure community-government cooperation. Both the criminal law and the civil law of torts deal with intentional behavior by one person that violates the rights of another. In criminal cases, the offender is prosecuted by an agent of the government and punished; to convict, the prosecutor must prove the offender guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The criminal justice system faces the challenge of balancing multiple goals, usually expressed as deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution. Two groups of victims should always be eligible for restitution: the direct victim and the community, with the direct victim having priority over all secondary victims, including the community. Under restorative justice, it is argued, civil government and the community cooperate both in enabling the victim and the offender to resolve the crime successfully and in building safe communities.
