The Heritage Foundation  defines over criminalization as “the trend to use the criminal law rather than the civil law to solve every problem, to punish every mistake, and to compel compliance with regulatory objectives.” In today’s society, most states have laws on the books for just about anything you could think of.   Criminalizing every behavior a person can engage in is said to chill the effects that punishing criminal behavior was originally intended to produce. The Heritage Foundation issued a report entitled “Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law.” For more information, see their webpage on the topic.  In sum, this article details that Congress continues to create new crimes through legislation that do not possess the characteristics of what is typically referred to as a “crime.” Here are some of the brief findings outlined in this article:

” A core principle of the American system of justice is that no one should be subjected to criminal punishment for conduct that he did not know was illegal or otherwise wrongful. This principle of fair notice, which has been a cornerstone of our criminal justice system since the nation’s founding, is embodied in the requirement that, with rare exceptions, the government must prove the defendant acted with mens rea—a “guilty mind”—before subjecting him to criminal punishment. Members of the 109th Congress (2005–2006) proposed 446 criminal offenses that did not involve violence, firearms, drugs and drug trafficking, pornography, or immigration violations. Of these 446 proposed non-violent criminal offenses, 57 percent lacked an adequate mens rea requirement. Worse, during the 109th Congress, 23 new criminal offenses that lack an adequate mens rea requirement were enacted into law.” This quote can be found here.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers notes that there are over 4,450 crimes throughout the Federal criminal code. Americans are expected to know and understand the laws so they can conform their behavior to them. Ignorance to the law is said to not be a defense to criminal conduct. However, can our society really expect the average citizen to be fully informed of what conduct is punishable when there are that many offenses?

For more examples of this problem, see this article.