Some things are acceptable on small quantities but unacceptable in large ones. You don’t want to incentivise those things.
This takes some unpacking. For things that are acceptable on small scales and not large ones, should we prohibit the scale rather than the act? The status quo is that blackmail is frowned upon, but not enforced unless particularly noteworthy. That bugs me from a rule-implementation standpoint, but may be ideal in a practical sense.
We do have some laws that are explicit about scale. For instance speed limits and blood alcohol levels. However, nor everything is easily quantified. Money changing hands can be a proxy for something reaching too large a scale
Many laws incorporate scaling in terms of damage threshold or magnitude of single incident. We have very few laws that are explicit about scale in terms of overall frequency or number of participants in multiple incidents. City zoning may be one example of success in this area—only allowing so many residents in an area, without specifying who.
There are very few criminal laws such that something is legal only when a few people are doing it, and becomes illegal if it’s too popular. Much more common to just outlaw it and allow prosecutors/judges leeway in enforcing it. I’d argue that this choice gets exercised in ways that are harmful, but it does get the job (permitting low-level incidence while preventing large-scale infractions) done.
Some things are acceptable on small quantities but unacceptable in large ones. You don’t want to incentivise those things.
This takes some unpacking. For things that are acceptable on small scales and not large ones, should we prohibit the scale rather than the act? The status quo is that blackmail is frowned upon, but not enforced unless particularly noteworthy. That bugs me from a rule-implementation standpoint, but may be ideal in a practical sense.
We do have some laws that are explicit about scale. For instance speed limits and blood alcohol levels. However, nor everything is easily quantified. Money changing hands can be a proxy for something reaching too large a scale
Many laws incorporate scaling in terms of damage threshold or magnitude of single incident. We have very few laws that are explicit about scale in terms of overall frequency or number of participants in multiple incidents. City zoning may be one example of success in this area—only allowing so many residents in an area, without specifying who.
There are very few criminal laws such that something is legal only when a few people are doing it, and becomes illegal if it’s too popular. Much more common to just outlaw it and allow prosecutors/judges leeway in enforcing it. I’d argue that this choice gets exercised in ways that are harmful, but it does get the job (permitting low-level incidence while preventing large-scale infractions) done.