This book presents a comprehensive theory of a culpability-based criminal law.

Larry Alexander is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego. He has authored and co-authored five books, most recently Is There a Right to Freedom of Expression and, with Emily Sherwin, Demystifying Legal Reasoning.

Part I. Introduction: Retribution and the Criminal Law: 1. Criminal law, punishment, and desert; Part II. The Culpable Act: 2. The essence of culpability: acts manifesting insufficient concern for the legally protected interests of others; 3. Negligence; 4. Defeaters of culpability; Part III. The Immateriality of Resulting Harm to Legally Protected Interests: 5. Only culpability, not resulting harm, affects desert; 6. When are inchoate crimes culpable and why?; 7. The locus of culpability; Part IV. A Proposed Code: 8. What a culpability-based criminal code might look like.