Principles of Morals and

220/Jeremy Bentham
transformed into semi-public offences; and by certain others, into pub-
lic.
11.There can be no ground for punishing them, until they can be
proved to have occasioned, or to be about to occasion some particular
mischief to some particular individual. In this they differ from semi-
public offences, and from public.
12.In slight cases, compensation given to the individual affected by
them may be a sufficient ground for remitting punishment: for if the
primary mischief has not been sudicient to produce any alarm, the whole
of the mischief may be cured by compensation. In this also they differ
from semi-public offences, and from public ones.
LXIII. Characters of Class 2; composed of 
SEMI
-
PUBLIC
 offences, or
offences affecting a whole subordinate class of persons.
1. As such, they produce no primary mischief. The mischief they
produce consists of one or other or both branches of the secondary mis-
chief produced by offences against individuals, without the primary.
2. In as far as they are to be considered as belonging to this class,
the persons whom they affect in the first instance are not individually
assignable.
3. They are apt, however, to involve or terminate in some primary
mischief of the first order; which when they do, they advance into the
first class, and become private offences.
4. They admit not, as such, of compensation.
5. Nor of retaliation
6. As such, there is never any one particular individual whose ex-
clusive interest it is to prosecute them: a circle of persons may, however,
always be marked out, within which may be found some who have a
greater interest to prosecute than any who are out of that circle have.
7. The mischief they produce is in general pretty obvious: not so
much so indeed as that of private offences, but more so upon the whole
than that of self-regarding and public ones.
8. They are rather less obnoxious to the censure of the world than
private offences; but they are more so than public ones: they would also
be more so than self-regarding ones, were it not for the influence of the
two false principles, the principle of sympathy and antipathy, and that
of asceticism.
9. They are more apt than private and self-regarding offences to
require different descriptions in different countries: but less so than public
ones.

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Principles of Morals and Legislation/221
10. There may be ground for punishing them before they have been
proved to have occasioned, or to be about to occasion, mischief to any
particular individual; which is not the case with private offences.
11. In no cases can satisfaction given to any particular individual
affected by them be a sufficient ground for remitting punishment: for by
such satisfaction it is but a part of the mischief of them that is cured. In
this they differ from private offences; but agree with public.
LXIV. Characters of Class 3; consisting of 
SELF
 
REGARDING
 offences:
offences against one’s self.
1. In individual instances it will often be questionable, whether they
are productive of any primary mischief at all: secondary, they produce
none.
2. They affect not any other individuals, assignable or not assign-
able, except in as far as they affect the offender himself; unless by pos-
sibility in particular cases; and in a very slight and distant manner the
whole state.
3. They admit not, therefore, of compensation,
4. Nor of retaliation.
5. No person has naturally any peculiar interest to prosecute them:
except in as far as in virtue of some connection he may have with the
offender, either in point of sympathy or of interest, a mischief of the
derivative kind may happen to devolve upon him.
6. The mischief they produce is apt to be unobvious and in general
more questionable than that of any of the other classes.
7. They are however apt, many of them, to be more obnoxious to
the censure of the world than public offences; owing to the influence of
the two false principles; the principle of asceticism, and the principle of
antipathy. Some of them more even than semi-public, or even than pri-
vate offence.
8. They are less apt than offences of any other class to require dif-
ferent descriptions in different states and countries,
9. Among the inducements to punish them, antipathy against the
offender is apt to have a greater share than sympathy for the public.
10. The best plea for punishing them is founded on a faint probabil-
ity there may be of their being productive of a mischief, which, if real,
will place them in the class of public ones: chiefly in those divisions of
it which are composed of offences against population, and offences
against the national wealth.
LXV. Characters of Class 4; consisting of 
PUBLIC
 offences, or of-

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222/Jeremy Bentham
fences against the state in general.
1. As such, they produce not any primary mischief; and the second-
ary mischief they produce, which consists frequently of danger without
alarm, though great in value, is in specie very indeterminate.
2. The individuals whom they affect, in the first instance, are con-
stantly unassignable; except in as far as by accident they happen to
involve or terminate in such or such offences against individuals.
3. Consequently they admit not of compensation.
4. Nor of retaliation.
5. Nor is there any person who has naturally any particular interest
to prosecute them; except in as far as they appear to affect the power, or
in any other manner the private interest, of some person in authority.
6. The mischief they produce, as such, is comparatively unobvious;
much more so than that of private offences, and more so likewise, than
that of semi-public ones.
7. They are, as such, much less obnoxious to the censure of the
world, than private offences; less even than semi-public, or even than
self-regarding offences; unless in particular cases, through sympathy to
certain persons in authority, whose private interests they may appear to
affect.
8. They are more apt than any of the other classes to admit of differ-
ent descriptions, in different states and countries.
9. They are constituted, in many cases, by some circumstances of
aggravation superadded to a private offence: and therefore, in these cases,
involve the mischief and exhibit the other characters belonging to both
classes. They are however, even in such cases, properly enough ranked
in the 4th class, inasmuch as the mischief they produce in virtue of the
properties which aggregate them to that class, eclipses and swallows up
that which they produce in virtue of those properties which aggregate
them to the 1st.
10. There may be sufficient ground for punishing them, without
their being proved to have occasioned, or to be about to occasion, any
particular mischief to any particular individual. In this they differ from
private offences, but agree with semi-public ones. Here, as in semi-
public offences, the extent of the mischief makes up for the uncertainty
of it.
11. In no case can satisfaction, given to any particular individual
affected by them, be a sufficient ground for remitting punishment. In
this they differ from private offences; but agree with semi-public.

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