This is concerning matters such as false imprisonment and technically unlawful but not immoral acts, and laws not meeting natural consequences for an action.
The law system that we have in most western societies is far from just. The innocent are punished and the guilty rewarded. This is due in part to the complications inherent in the act of unlawfulness. However the complications that the reams of red tape are their to stop ie cleaver criminals, means that in allot of cases that the innocent are punished by the very system that is supposed to protect them.
Example 1: If someone breaks into a house and steals items from said house, are caught at a later date but have sold the goods, the criminal is very rarely made to reimburse the people he stole from. There are a number of reasons for this: Such as the criminal will often be said to have no money. Well sorry but they should have thought of that before they stole someone’s goods and pissed it up against the wall. Such a person should have to be made to work voluntarily and have their wages go to the victims but does this happen? No they are sent to prison. I am not unsympathetic to criminals, I just thing that punishments should fit the crime. The consequence should be related to the crime and sending a thief to prison is not. Making them pay for it is, it would do better to make the connection of why certain crimes are wrong.
Please comment and post other ways in which the law system is at fault and/or ways that it could be improved, and made more just.
Are you saying this makes the criminal worse off or better off? Or are you more concerned with the victoms and how they might be compensated for their loss?
if you steal from someone, and get caught, legally you are forced to pay restitutions of equivolent value back to the person you stole from. saying “i sold your stuff” isnt a valid excuse.
of course, if there is literally no way for you to come up with the money, then yes, the person who got his stuff stolen is pretty much out of luck… but hey, thats what insurance is for. if you dont insure your belongings, then youre taking the risk that they might vanish, never to return.
our system is set up to punish- not to correct or be “just.” We use our system to deter people.
I just wish they’d legalize pot and psychedelic mushrooms. I’d be ok with that. Pot is less harmful than alcohol and arguably more healthy than cigarettes. The myth that mushrooms are poisonous is a lie. The CDC says they are less harmful than aspirin.
All laws are unjust if the people who follow them did not choose to follow to follow them freely. If you want a just legal system, the only way you will get one is if there is free choice in its delivery.
I think it is wise to spring from this very first point and draw the obvious but often ignored conclusion: justice and law are arbitrary, subjective, debatable and there will NEVER be a consensus on choices.
There is no objective law. In our current state of affairs, most people are compelled to follow laws and their choices for the delivery of justice are violently limited. In other words, the bureaucrats tell you The Law and if you do not like it, too bad.
I agree with your first and second sentences. I disagree with your third sentence. However, I do not see the connection between any of them.
The insurance industry** can do that. If justice/arbitration/security/protection/dispute resolution services were bundled into property insurance packages, people would be able to pick and choose the type of legal system they preferred. This brings forth the following questions:
Why should insurance companies be expected to offer legal services bundled into property insurance?
Why are current insurance companies NOT doing that now?
Answers:
It is to their advantage to do so because they want to protect their own property when disputes arise. The insurance company makes money by getting a continuous stream of paying customers. Crimes and disputes over property claims are bad for long term business. Therefore, it is to the advantage of the insurance companies to make sure life is safe and stable.
Current insurance companies do not bother offering protection nor legal services because the expense is currently paid by the tax-payers. All they have to do is call the police to cover the legal asses.
Right now, there is no incentive for insurance companies to offer security or defense services to lower classes of society. The police can do it – albeit they do it poorly but nobody cares. Furthermore, modern security companies only offer shoddy incomplete service too – when a problem arises, they just call the police anyway.
Effectively, our modern unfree market fosters unfairness to the benefit of the rich.
** Current insurance companies are monstrosities of the state. They receive privileges and favors which make it easy for them to screw their customers. Those privileges start with their relationship with the banks. The banks, in turn, receive state privileges which allow them to effectively print money. Current banks and insurance companies hold state-sanctioned monopolies in their industry which make it affordable for them to deny service. Their victims are screwed from the get-go because their victims can rarely afford the legal fees to defend themselves.
There are no unjust laws…As Abalard said: Ius is the Genus and Lex a species of it… If the species is not of the genus, the term is false, and falsely applied…
I think the attitudes towards the law and crime are all wrong. I tried to argue from a criminological standpoint about the causes of property crimes on another forum - and was accused, with quite a bit of nasty innuendo, of being “sympathetic to criminals,” because I dare try to put their actions into context or explain them. Same with projects such as youth centres - because young people in general are the folk devils of the 21st Century, youth projects are seen as “rewarding criminals.” People have no conception of the causes of crime, or how damaging their right-wing tabloid-fuelled frenzied hatelust (there’s a new word) is to the whole problem.
Hatelust - an almost orgasmic relishing of expressing hatred. Spread it around, or improve it!
PS: Cime is never just an effect, but a cause… If everyone on top has no honor it is foolish to expect it of the lowly… If the rich have no morality, the poor won’t… They are just braver in their expression because they have none of the protection…Then, it is hard to find a rich man in prison…