Public Welfare Offenses (Sayre)

In 1933, Prof. Francis Bowes Sayre wrote a seminal article describing a new kind of strict liability crime that had arisen, starting in the late 19th Century: public welfare offenses. As Prof. Sayre explains, these crimes were typically regulatory offenses with minor penalties. Later commentators have identified five key characteristics of strict liability public welfare offenses:

1. They are statutory crimes (not derived from the common law),
2. They typically do not carry moral condemnation,
3. There is an evident legislative policy favoring strict liability,
4. The standard of care imposed on potential offenders is reasonable, and 
5. The penalty is small.

The following excerpt from Prof. Sayre's article explains how and why these crimes arose. As you consider the development of these offenses around the turn of the 20th Century, ask yourself whether subsequent developments in the structure of U.S. governmental operations (think the New Deal) have supplanted the need for public welfare offenses.