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uncountable
The act of making an activity or substance no longer criminalized (no longer a crime, subject to criminal penalties, to perform or possess). (Compare legalization, which often implies regulation.) examples
The act of ceasing to treat a person as a criminal, by making their activities legal or no longer subjecting them to the criminal justice system (but instead possibly the mental healthcare system, etc). quotations examples
2006, Mark R. Munetz, Patricia M. Griffin, “Use of the Sequential Intercept Model as an approach to decriminalization of people with serious mental illness”, in Psychiatric Services, 57(4), 544-549
Most sex work feminists support either the legalization or the decriminalization of sex workers.
2012, Sverre Molland, The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong, University of Hawaii Press, page 38