US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

The general purposes of the provisions governing the definition of offenses are:

(1) To forbid and prevent conduct that unjustifiably and inexcusably inflicts or threatens substantial harm to individual or public interests;

(2) To subject to public control persons whose conduct indicates that they are disposed to commit crimes;

(3) To safeguard conduct that is without fault and which is essentially victimless in its effect from condemnation as criminal;

(4) To give fair warning of the nature of the conduct declared to constitute an offense; and

(5) To differentiate on reasonable grounds between serious and minor offenses.

Laws 1977, LB 38, § 2