A notoriety-based justification for the Son of Sam legislation

grantor: University of Toronto"Son of Sam" legislation aims the confiscation of literary depiction of crimes committed by offender-authors, and the use of the confiscated amount to compensate the victims of crime. Such legislation can be supported by either the principle that wrongdoers should compensate their victims, or the principle that no one should be allowed to profit from her or his own wrongdoing. While the existing literature mainly concentrates on the former principle as a (possible) justification for "Son of Sam" legislation, this thesis is aimed at defending the "Son of Sam" legislation, based on the principle against profiting from one's own wrongdoing. The approach taken in this thesis is that such justification is a sufficient one while not necessarily exhaustive. The principle against profiting from wrongdoing cannot justify a blanket justification for confiscation of any profit resulting from wrongdoing due to the existence of three sets of concerns: lack of a moral need to confiscate the related profit from the underlying wrongdoing, lack of a causal connection between the underlying wrongdoing and the resultant gain, or the existence of countervailing considerations that weigh against the creation of a confiscation rule. The thesis supports a confiscation rule of notoriety-based profits. It explores the unique characteristics of financial exploitation of notoriety and shows that a notoriety-based confiscation rule adequately satisfies the requirements derived from the above three concerns. In conclusion, the thesis makes some preliminary suggestions for structuring a notoriety-based confiscation rule that would also serve several interests of victims of crime.L.L.M