The violation of right as right that has occurred is indeed a positive, external existence, but one that is in itself null. The manifestation of this nullity of theirs is the annihilation of that violation, entering into existence just as much — the actuality of right, as its necessity mediating itself with itself through the sublation of its violation.
Through a crime something is altered, and the thing exists in this alteration; but this existence is the opposite of itself and to that extent null in itself. This nullity consists in having annulled right as right. For right, as something absolute, cannot be annulled; thus the manifestation of the crime is null in itself, and this nullity is the essence of the crime’s effect. But what is null must manifest itself as such, that is, must present itself as itself violable. The deed of the crime is not a first, positive thing to which punishment would then come as a negation, but rather something negative, so that punishment is only the negation of a negation. Actual right is now the annulment of this violation, which precisely thereby shows its validity and proves itself to be a necessary, mediated existence.
§ 97: Crime is null in itself
A crime has happened. Something in the world is different from before. The money is gone, the person is hurt. The crime is a fact.
And yet it is null in itself.
How can a fact be null?
Crime wants to cancel right as right. But no one can cancel right. It holds, even when someone violates it. So what crime wants is impossible. It is an attack on empty air.
This nullity must become visible. This happens when right cancels the violation. Just as crime exists in the world, its canceling must also exist in the world.
What does this mean for punishment?
Crime is not the first thing, to which punishment answers as the second. Crime is itself already a negation. It negates right. Punishment negates this negation. In this way, right restores itself.
Summary: Crime is a fact, but null in itself. Its nullity shows when right cancels the violation. In this way, right becomes actual.
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