Nobody wakes up thinking they’re going to break the law, but the average American professional commits three felonies a day.
There is no cumulative list of every federal crime, but studies suggest there are over 4,450 federal criminal statutes and thousands of federal regulations that carry criminal penalties. The state of Texas also has over 1,700 criminal offenses.
Many of these rules weren’t even passed by Congress, but are buried in deep legislative fine print by unelected officials and agencies. They are complicated, written and enforced in manners not correlated to matters of public safety. Our laws are growing and overlapping faster than we can keep up with or properly enforce. The sections of the U.S. Code that create crimes have grown 36% since 1994.
Criminal liability has traditionally required intent or a “guilty mind,” a concept known as mens rea. However, the growth of strict liability and the increase in low-intent crimes mean people violate laws every day because they don’t know they exist. Still, ignorance of the law is not a viable defense.
When conduct is broadly criminalized, it becomes harder for regular people to know what is breaking the law.
This issue isn’t abstract. Modern criminal statutes increasingly reach into areas of everyday life that most people, especially students, assume are minor or harmless.
At UT, student organizations process reimbursements, vendor payments, utility bills, prepaid cards and dues.
Aarushi Agrawal, finance and economics sophomore, stated that as VP of Finance for her sorority, she handles around $1-1.5 million.
“There’s definitely times where I’ll text my financial advisor from the chapter because I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to handle this,’” Agrawal said.
Many other laws are surprising to students.
For example, simply being present with someone who commits a serious offense, without attempting to prevent the action, can expose you to criminal liability under the Texas “law of parties.”
This applies to a wide array of other laws many young people aren’t aware of but are particularly susceptible to. If you’re intoxicated in the passenger seat while the driver is arrested for DWI, officers can arrest you for public intoxication. In addition, if you have a vape pen that tests positive for THC, you are not just at risk of a misdemeanor. You may receive a felony charge.
“The criminal justice system is stepping over itself … making it more complicated in unnecessary ways that doesn’t actually do anything to help public safety,” said criminal defense attorney Heather Fisher. “It’s not forgiving, especially for young kids.”
When criminal laws multiply faster than citizens can understand them, justice becomes technical instead of moral. A justice system that relies on confusing technicalities to enforce law is not one that is truly serving justice, and while as students we may not have the ability to directly change that, we can better equip ourselves to handle it.
On a federal level, Congress should require clear proof of intent and decode the intricate legal knots that have been created. However, on a UT level, more can be done for students, including annual legal literacy seminars or educational materials from the Legal Affairs Office.
College is supposed to be where students learn to navigate adulthood, and in such a complex legal system, legal literacy isn’t optional. If we are expected to follow such laws, we should be taught what they are.
Thakkar is a government and economics sophomore from Winter Park, Florida.
