This essay explores the case against strict liability offenses as part of the more
general debate about proportional punishment. This debate takes on a very different look in
light of a formal result derived by the authors elsewhere, that is briefly summarized and
whose implications are pursued here. Traditional objections that consequentialists have
mounted against the deontologists’/retributivists’ defense of proportionality fall by the
wayside, but a new threat to the proportionality requirement replaces it: the ease with
which any such requirement can be circumvented.

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