View source for Malum prohibitum

{{Short description|Latin legal phrase meaning unlawful only by statute}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Globalize|article|United States|date=March 2023}}

'''''Malum prohibitum''''' (plural ''mala prohibita'', literal translation: "wrong [as or because] prohibited") is a [[List of Latin phrases|Latin phrase]] used in [[law]] to refer to conduct that constitutes an unlawful act only by virtue of [[statute]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Malum prohibitum - LII / Legal Information Institute |publisher=[[Cornell University Law School]] |url=https://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/malum_prohibitum|access-date=19 May 2010}}</ref> as opposed to conduct that is evil in and of itself, or ''[[malum in se]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Malum in se - LII / Legal Information |publisher=[[Cornell University Law School]] |url=https://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/malum_in_se |access-date=19 May 2010}}</ref>

Conduct that is so clearly violative of society's standards for allowable conduct that it is illegal under English [[common law]] is usually regarded as ''malum in se''. An offense that is ''malum prohibitum'' may not appear on the face to directly violate [[morality|moral standards]]. The distinction between these two cases is discussed in ''State of Washington v. Thaddius X. Anderson'':<ref>{{Cite web|title=No. 67826-0. - ''STATE v. ANDERSON'' - Supreme Court of the State of Washington, 67826-0, decided August 2000|url=http://law.justia.com/cases/washington/supreme-court/2000/67826-0-1.html|accessdate=3 August 2017}}</ref>

{{quote|Criminal offenses can be broken down into two general categories  ''malum in se'' and ''malum prohibitum''.  The distinction between ''malum in se'' and ''malum prohibitum'' offenses is best characterized as follows:  a ''malum in se'' offense is "naturally evil as adjudged by the sense of a civilized community,"  whereas a ''malum prohibitum'' offense is wrong only because a statute makes it so. ''State v. Horton'', 139 N.C. 588, 51 S.E. 945, 946 (1905).<br /><br />"Public welfare offenses" are a subset of ''malum prohibitum'' offenses as they are typically regulatory in nature and often {{"'}}result in no direct or immediate injury to person or property but merely create the danger or probability of it which the law seeks to minimize.{{'"}} ''Bash'', 130 Wn.2d at 607 (quoting ''Morissette v. United States'', 342 U.S. 246, 255–56, 72 S. Ct. 240, 96 L. Ed. 288 (1952)); see also ''State v. Carty'', 27 Wn. App. 715, 717, 620 P.2d 137 (1980).}}

Examples of offenses that are generally regarded as ''mala prohibita'' include [[disorderly conduct]], [[gambling]], [[Prohibition of drugs|possession of a controlled substance]], [[prostitution]], [[public intoxication]], [[resisting arrest]], [[Speed limit|speeding]], and [[vagrancy]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Mark S. |title=Crimes Mala in Se : An Equity-Based Definition |journal=Criminal Justice Policy Review |date=September 2006 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=270–289 |doi=10.1177/0887403405281962|s2cid=144679765 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Law}}
* [[Process crime]]
* [[Public-order crime]]
* [[Victimless crime]]

==References==
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[[Category:Criminal law]]
[[Category:Latin legal terminology]]


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