Crime And Punishment: Is There Or Is There Not Such A Thing As Crime? Essay, Research Paper

Crime and Punishment: Is There or is There Not Such a Thing as Crime?

For this question, I have chosen to discuss the following three works of

literature: Crime and Punishment, by Feodor Dostoevsky, Beloved, by Toni

Morrison, and Utopia, by Sir Thomas More.

To begin with an omniscient and philosophical frame of reference, crime

is only defined as crime by the society defining it. When a mass of human

beings coagulate to? gether and form a civilized society, they are bound to make

rules and laws to follow and bide by; for laws are one of the cornerstones of a

civilized society. If there were no laws, society would be uncivilized and in a

chaotic state of anarchy. These laws are decided and administered usually by

elected officials who act as leaders in the society. From the input of the

citizens, they make laws to run the society by. And when a person breaks the

law, that is defined as a ?crime’. For example, purposeful and alleged

manslaughter is a crime, because it is a law to not kill others; people are not

allowed to go cavorting around killing whomever they please, if they did,

civilization would fall. Laws and rules hold us to civilization.

Another way to define crime is through ethics and morals. Each person

on this Earth possesses a conscience; when we do something wrong, our conscience

makes us feel guilty, although some people feel less or more guilt than others

about certain acts; it varies individually. Based on this, one can define a

crime as the things that make us feel guilty, although some crimes do not make

us feel guilty. Some people do not feel any guilt when committing immoral acts;

these people are deemed psychopaths or sociopaths by society. For example, most

people do not feel guilty when they break the law by speeding, its just a way of

life these days, but with complex ideologies (stealing, killing), we feel guilt

if they are committed. Our consciences also hold us to civilization.

In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the laws are already defined in

Early Nineteenth century St. Petersburg, Russia. Henceforth, when one breaks a

law they have committed a crime and are eligible for arrest and punishment by

the upholders of law in society, the police. A particular act that is defined

as criminal is that of murder. Raskolnikov knows of this very well, for he has

committed two murders, both of them ille? gal and in cold blood. Obviously,

this act is defined as criminal because of the moral and legal implications one

faces when committing it. Most, if not all people in Russia at that time would

agree that murder is defined as a crime.

But Raskolnikov has other ideas about his crime. At first, he committed

the mur? der of the old moneylender only for his monetary gain, and her daughter

was a totally unintentional murder. After the murder, once Raskolnikov has

thought the implications of it over, he matures intellectually and sides with

his extraordinary man theory. Using this view, Raskolnikov feels he has

transgressed crime…

The particular act of murder is defined as a moral crime by most

people’s con? sciences, and also by the authorities. This is such a simple

concept, it is just difficult to put into words. Murder is illegal and very

wrong, as seen by the people of ?civilized’ civilizations, God, and the police.

Enough said.

In Morrison’s Beloved, the laws are again defined and well established

in Early Nineteenth century rural Ohio, although they are skewed toward white

people; black people have almost no rights at all. Various acts that occurred

in this book can be consid? ered criminal acts. The acts of infanticide and

segregation were definitely criminal acts, due to the morals involved. We as

humans were raised by our parents and environment to learn that murder

[infanticide] is ethically evil. So, using this knowledge we automati? cally

process this information as wrong! That is why it is difficult to extrapolate

in writing on the subject of why particular acts are defined as ?criminal’.

Murder and especially infanticide is low-down dirty wrong, as seen by the

majority of this Earth’s population. There may be exceptions to this rule when

infanticide and murder seem justifiable, but then again, there are exceptions to

any and every rule.

Now, on segregation, why would any race on God’s green Earth think of

the segre? gation and the abusive utilization of a different race as just??? I

think it was just the views of the time. Most of the Americans in this era

thought of these views as acceptable, although a handful questioned the

integrity of these acts with literature and propaganda.

The writing of Beloved constituted sort of a memorial memorandum to

these acts unjustly committed on the African-American people. These people were

repressed and they definitely felt this was a crime. It was not until the

1950’s that Segregation actually legally became a crime.

In More’s Utopia, the laws are strictly established and enforced. Since

this was a ?perfect’ society, there were definitely a plethora of laws. Any

acts that defied these insti? tuted laws were frowned upon as a crime. The

decisions as to which acts are crimes was ultimately up to the maker(s) of the

laws. In the land of Utopia, everybody agreed on the integrity of the laws that

were enacted. (Although this was a Utopian community, I am sure there were a

few free-thinkers who questioned the laws, although specific laws and protests

are unavailable.) The interests of the community were served when laws were

made and certain activities are considered criminal when they break these laws.

But activi? ties are also considered criminal in people’s minds and consciences,

as they learn the rights and wrongs of life.

This book and the previous books do in totality does seem to assert an

absolute definition of what constitues the act of a crime. The laws established,

the way people thought, and God’s influence all presented reasons to why crimes

are crimes.

“The degree of civilization can be judged by observing its prisoners.”

-Dostoevsky