Knowra Decriminalization Decriminalization Decriminalization removes or reduces criminal penalties for specified conduct without necessarily making that conduct lawful. It can leave civil, administrative, or other noncriminal sanctions in place.
Legalization : The removal of legal prohibitions on conduct, subject to any remaining regulation. Unlike decriminalization, legalization makes the conduct lawful within the rules that replace prohibition.
Criminal law : The body of law defining crimes, criminal responsibility, and state-imposed punishment. Decriminalization changes how criminal law classifies or punishes particular conduct.
Drug policy : Public laws and policies governing the production, distribution, possession, and use of drugs. Drug possession is a prominent target of decriminalization proposals and reforms.
Mass incarceration : The large-scale use of imprisonment as a response to crime, especially in the United States. Reducing criminal penalties can limit one route by which low-level offenses lead to incarceration.
Policy evaluation : The systematic assessment of a policy's design, implementation, outcomes, and costs. Evaluation tests whether decriminalization changes arrests, harms, and access to services.
Depenalization : The reduction of a penalty without removing the offense or its legal status. It may soften punishment while leaving the conduct criminal, a narrower change than some forms of decriminalization.
Statutory law : Law enacted by a legislative body and expressed in statutes. Legislatures commonly decriminalize conduct by repealing or amending statutory offenses.
Drug possession : The holding or control of a controlled substance, regulated differently across legal systems. Reforms often remove criminal penalties for possession while retaining restrictions on supply.
Collateral consequences of criminal conviction : Legal and social restrictions that can follow a criminal conviction beyond the sentence imposed. Avoiding criminal convictions can prevent some lasting barriers to work, housing, and civic participation.
Deterrence : The prevention of conduct through the threat or experience of sanctions. Debates ask whether removing criminal penalties changes the conduct they once deterred.
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