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No, "decriminalize" means "reduce or eliminate the penalties/enforcement for a criminal act (but it is still against the law)" while "legalize" means "make a cr
by shkkmo 8y ago
No, "decriminalize" means "reduce or eliminate the penalties/enforcement for a criminal act (but it is still against the law)" while "legalize" means "make a criminal act no longer criminal (it is no longer against the law)". Oddly enough, this means that "criminalize" is not the opposite of "decriminalize" but of "legalize".
- jacobush 8y agoWouldn't that depend entirely if the law was only in criminal law? If so, decriminalize would remove all of the illegality?
- cknight 8y agoCriminal law is not a neat container. A crime is simply anything which is defined as being a criminal act within a given piece of legislation. You can "decriminalise" something either by eliminating the entire piece of legislation, or by amending it to remove the criminal act within it. In the case of the latter, that leaves open the option of replacing it with other words that might indicate civil penalties. If that happens, that is still decriminalisation, and would be distinct from legalisation.