Crime And Punishment: Is There Or Is There Not Such A Thing As Crime? :: essays research papers

evil and Punishment Is There or is There Not Such a Thing as Crime?For this question, I have chosen to discuss the following three deeds ofliterature Crime and Punishment, by Feodor Dostoevsky, Beloved, by ToniMorrison, and Utopia, by Sir Thomas More.To bring down with an omniscient and philosophical frame of reference, crimeis only defined as crime by the society defining it. When a mass of human beingbeings coagulate to gether and form a civilized society, they are bound to comerules and wakelessitys to follow and bide by for virtues are one of the cornerstones of acivilized society. If there were no laws, society would be uncivilized and in achaotic state of anarchy. These laws are decided and administered usually by elect officials who act as leaders in the society. From the input of thecitizens, they reach laws to lam the society by. And when a person breaks thelaw, that is defined as a crime. For example, businesslike and allegedmanslaughter is a crime, because it is a law to not kill others bulk are notallowed to go cavorting around killing whomever they please, if they did,civilization would fall. Laws and rules constipate us to civilization.Another way to define crime is through ethics and morals. Each personon this Earth possesses a conscience when we do something wrong, our consciencemakes us feel guilty, although some people feel little or more guilt than othersabout certain acts it varies individually. Based on this, one can define acrime as the things that make us feel guilty, although some crimes do not makeus feel guilty. Some people do not feel both guilt when committing immoral actsthese people are deemed psychopaths or sociopaths by society. For example, almostpeople do not feel guilty when they break the law by speeding, its just a way oflife these days, but with confused ideologies (stealing, killing), we feel guiltif they are committed. Our consciences also hold us to civilization.In Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, th e laws are already defined inEarly nineteenth century St. Petersburg, Russia. Henceforth, when one breaks alaw they have committed a crime and are eligible for arrest and punishment bythe upholders of law in society, the police. A particular act that is definedas outlaw is that of murder. Raskolnikov knows of this very well, for he hascommitted 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