On Special Liberty and the Motivation to Harm

Justin Kotzé

The British Journal of Criminology, 2025, vol. 65, issue 2, 314-327

Abstract: Special liberty is a destructive and criminogenic force operating throughout the social structure and is arguably the main source of social harm today. The subject of special liberty feels entitled to risk harm to others in pursuit of their own expressive and/or instrumental interests. Since its inception, the concept of special liberty has been used to make sense of numerous issues. However, little attention has been directed towards clearly delineating the two main forms of self-interest served by its use. Our understanding of why special liberty is employed in particular circumstances and conditions is therefore limited. This article makes an original contribution by attempting to formalize an initial delineation of expressive and instrumental self-interest apropos the use of special liberty.

Keywords: expressive self-interest; harm; instrumental self-interest; motivation; special liberty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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