This book is prompted by a concern that those who offend are blamed too much when they are held criminally responsible, suggesting that the law is running at a moral and social justice deficit. This concern represents an enduring criticism of the criminal law which is variously characterised as a failure to recognise crime as a social problem, its subjects as real people, or its own role in perpetuating injustice through its doctrine and principles of responsibility. In response, the book argues that the boundary placed around what factors can and cannot be included in assessments of culpability, and the apparent red line drawn between guilt and non-guilt, are both more permeable and less definitive than the law might have us think. The introduction explains and summarises the core arguments to support a Universal Partial Defence for the criminal law, based on a Real Person Approach to blaming people.