Morality and Criminality
Introduction
In our present society, morality and criminality are assumed to be closely related. Morality is the extent to which something is right or wrong while criminality is the behavior that is contrary to or forbidden by criminal law. It is disobeying the laws that have been put across. People view morality and crime differently. (Schaffer ,1974) What one person considers as crime may not be regarded as a crime to another. A person is considered to be morally upright if they can hold or manifest high principles for proper conduct. Crime is considered a legal notion. Many a times laws can be immoral making it difficult to define certain act as crimes (Herrup ,1985). For instance, the government legalizing marijuana seems morally wrong, and if presented to a person the person might not follow that order. For this reason, it can be justified that not everyone considered a criminal is a criminal. Instead they are victims of a corrupt system.
Every criminal has a conscious but it is up to them to choose to use it. Many a times we don’t take our time to understand why a person may do what he does. However, a person’s behavior, upbringing, past life events and society can help us determine whether a person is capable of committing a criminal offence. For instance, if a person is brought up in a family where almost everyone is a thief, the chances of that person being a thief are also very high. Those who use hard drugs such as cocaine are likely to engage in criminal activities. This is because the drugs are known to impair peoples’ judgements and decisions (Herrup ,1985). In as much as the definition of a criminal is someone who commits crime, there is no physical description as to what a criminal should look like. Thieves are people we associate with in our daily activities either knowingly or unknowingly. They can be a part of our families, close friends or neighbors.
All human beings are considered to have some moral and ethical behaviors. For this reason, it is right to say that thieves know stealing is wrong but the temptation of committing ‘sin’ is far greater than any moral or ethical value. They tend to turn the evil into good in their minds, making them steal without feeling guilty. Socrates a philosopher says that no one commits evil knowingly, the evil is turned into good in the mind. Most of us as small children or even adults have stolen things at some point in life. (Herrup,1985) People have different reasons for stealing. One might steal food when faced with hardships so as to save themselves from dying of hunger. Crazy enough is that thieves do not like the idea of people stealing from them., They freakin hate it. (Schafer ,1974)
Conclusion
To sum up, both criminality and morality prescribe standards of behavior of people. People actions are not purely determined by their morality. One might do certain things because their judgement and decisions have been impaired not because they lack morals. Most times we as humans tend to judge people by their physical appearances without caring to know who they are and what they are capable of doing. All human beings including thieves have morals and ethics. The only difference is that the criminals do not uphold those morals.