Criminal Justice

The state is a human community that successfully claims for itself a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory, Max Weber remarks by way of definition. This monopoly may be viewed as legitimate by a dominant portion of the public and yet be unjust. Criminal justice meets the standards of justice only if the state deploys its monopoly power to punish fairly acts of wrongful force and fraud (WFF) that interfere with the fair terms of cooperation that sustain communal life.