Justifications for Conspiracy
Why punish conspiracy?
- Preventive intervention: allows law enforcement to act against persons who manifest a disposition to criminality before the target crime occurs.
- Special danger of group activity: the law assumes group action is more dangerous than solo crime—coordination, mutual reinforcement, increased capacity, less chance of voluntary desistance.
- Inchoate liability: like attempt, conspiracy punishes serious purpose before harm. But it punishes earlier—an agreement may be enough even when no overt act has yet occurred (in MPC and some jurisdictions).
Critique: conspiracy is the "darling of the prosecutor's nursery"—broad doctrine, vague boundaries, harsh consequences (Pinkerton, hearsay exception, joint trials).