Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Morality or Fear?
After listening to the discussion in class on why people obey laws, I have come to certain conclusions. I feel that it all depends on the crime that is being committed or not committed. Certain crimes that have been around for centuries like murder, rape, and robbery have stayed illegal over all these years for a reason. A normal, moral person would not commit these acts because it is wrong morally, not just because they will get into legal trouble. If the punishment for murder was only one night in jail, I do not think we would see much of an increase in the overall rate for murders. I do not commit murder, rape, robbery or other similar offenses because I would not be able to live with myself knowing that i took another life. However, for certain offenses that don't necessarily have a direct victim like shoplifting or drug possession laws, i think that if there was no fear of legal actions, there would be a large increase in these crimes. It takes a lot out of a normal, decent person to physically take someones life but taking a candy bar from the super market because you didn't have enough money to buy it isn't so hard. Very few people think about how if everyone starting shoplifting, then the businesses would fail and the economy would fail as well causing mass lay offs and firings which would make the unemployment sky rocket. Most people only look at the effects that will affect them immediately. I don't walk around town with a joint in my mouth solely because of my fear of being arrested and possibly sent to jail. However, not everyone in this country shares the same morals and many don't contain any morals. This is the reason we need sanctions and punishments for all illegal activities so there is as little gray area in the law as possible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with what you are saying. One of the concerns I have is downloading music. Many individuals our own age illegally download music as well as media from different websites and programs; however, this is greatly hurting the media industry. I can understand individuals our own age point of view though: Why should I pay 15$ for a CD or 10$ for a movie ticket if I can listen/watch for free?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying but only to a certain extent. When you look back in time in the kind of "morals" that people had before the law as we know it was created you can see that "an eye for an eye" was the norm in punishment for crime. This can still be seen in some current less advanced legal systems. For them, punishment was seen as something that was taken extremely seriously but their idea of morally sound might not be the same as what we consider today. Someone killing a wife for cheating was not seen as immoral, but today it would be. Human’s do not have a collective “moral code” by which they abide to, but rather a code which has been controlled and morphed as the threat and extent of punishment has changed.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunatley, I must disagree with a part of your post. I really dont believe that the murder rate wouldn't increase if the penalty was only one night in jail. There are many people in our society that do not share the same morals as you do. If the penalty was only one night in jail, this would change our social outlook on murder, and maybe not within our generation, but at some point, this would become much more socially acceptable. Morals are not a set thing, they are constantly being reshaped as our society advances and changes. You may be correct in assuming that there wouldnt be an initial rise in murder rate, but within a generation or two, murder would become a much more common thing and happen very frequenty if the penalty were to be only one night in jail.
ReplyDeleteIf the penalty for murder was only one night in jail, people would actively try to assassinate world leaders, political figures, and Miley Cyrus constantly. tas5204 is right in pointing out that not everyone shares the same morals, and that they are constantly being reshaped by society. I think the cause and effect may be reversed though; if society views murder as more socially acceptable, THEN it will have a less harsh legal penalty.
ReplyDeleteI agree with tas5204 and Evan about how they said that they believe that murder would increase if the punishment were to be changed to one night in jail. Morals can be generalized but not to this extreme just because of the fact that there is a standard deviation from the average person's morals. I believe the punishment for most crimes fit for what the average person's morals are towards those crimes. For instance, most people go to the extremes, like you, murder because it is easy to defend. For the majority, most people think that this is a horrible thing. And for the other extremity, speeding, most people don't see this as that bad as a crime so that is why there is no jail time (considering the person's past involvement with the law).
ReplyDeleteI think that just because many people do have morals, does not mean that everyone does. If there was minimal punishment for crimes like murder, many people would be doing it a lot more often. While the possibility of punishment may not stop people from committing the crimes entirely, it is a good deterrence.
ReplyDeleteVery funny (well not that funny): I saw someone get caught shoplifting at Mclanahans and I thought about this post. If everyone stole from Mclanahans it would def. not be able to function, so I agree with what you are saying.
ReplyDelete