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C
Offences against one's Self
We now come to the third class of offences
consisting of such acts as are prejudicial if to
any body to the offender himself rather than to
any other determinable person: offences by which
if any other person receive a wound it is through
[the sides of] the offender's sides.
Under this head if we should pass over unpunished
any offence act for which it is usual in
the established systems of jurisprudence to appoint
a punishment it will be requisite to give the
reasons for such omission. [Of such offences] such instances we shall
find many [instances] in so much that in the crime of this there
will be a great deal said and little done
The great error which Legislators have given not under this hand
Legislators however have in general are far from having been inactive under this head: their great error seems to have been the having been over-busy
Offences of this description may be comprehended stated by one
general name under the general title of Imprudences.
The distinctive characters of offences of this class are
the two following: Offences of this class agree all of them in possessing
these properties.
1. They are attended with no present private mischief.
For by the supposition they are acts which
if they produced prejudiced a [quantity of] surplus of in any person, would produce prejudice
is in the offender: but in him they produce some
at the time by the supposition: for if they did, he
would not perform do them. If they produce pain in
him at all it must be at some distant time
which he can not foresee
2. With regard to the public mischief they are not
attended with productive of any degree of pain among persons at
Identifier: | JB/072/181/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 72.
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072 |
penal code |
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181 |
offences against ones self |
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001 |
general indemnity |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown emblem] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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