Crime Shouldn’t Pay: A Proposal to Create an Effective and Constitutional Federal Anti-Profiting Statute

Abstract:     
It is conventional wisdom that crime should not pay. Unfortunately, federal law has struggled to implement this wisdom and pass constitutional muster. Current law violates the Constitution by targeting only certain forms of profiting that raise First Amendment concerns, such as writing books or making movies. This Article contends that Congress must avoid the embarrassment of allowing crime to pay by removing the law’s focus on expressive activity.

The Article begins by reviewing the current unconstitutional federal law. It proceeds to argue that Congress should require courts to prohibit profiting as a mandatory condition of supervised release and redraft the federal anti-profiting statute to forbid all profiting from federal crimes. Finally, the Article proposes a revised anti-profiting statute.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 6

Keywords: victim, crime victim, impact statement, criminal justice, sentencing

Accepted Paper Series