Criminals as Authors : The Problem of Publication Agreements of Criminals

Upholding the proposition that criminals should not make profit from their crime, the majority of the state legislatures in the U.S. has incorporated a commonly known legislation called the ‘Son of Sam’ statute. This statute is aimed to prevent criminals from gaining profit from crimes, thus any profits earned from publication agreements or other type of sales are distributed to compensate the victims, and not the criminals. These days, criminals are able to profit beyond publication agreements with the help of online auction sites and various mediums. Specifically, criminals are able to earn profit in relation to their crime from ‘items’ or also known as murderabilia. The primary discussion of this paper focuses on the conflicts between safeguarding the protection of victims and upholding the rights of defendants as authors.