I asked my cousin what her thoughts of the question were and what crimes she could pass off as justifiable, and she presented a scenario. She said that if a child was molested and sqy, the child's parent/guardian went on to harm(and maybe kill) the molester, then it was justified.
I agreed with her because I know how terrible the act is, plus I know how much rage I could be overcome with to deal with whoever beings harm the way of my loved one. But on the flip side, the reaction did not sit correctly. I mean, if we take emotion aside, it's not very appropriate.
Thing is, as much as molestation is a huge crime, murder is, too, and by law, it doesn't matter if that wasn't the intent cause, there's the authorities that one could report to. However, with the lackadaisical amd lopsided justice system of the country, it's not unlikely that a person goes unpunished for such heinous crime leaving the abused(and their loved one) in so much distraught and rage that they take laws into their own hands.
I mean, the very definition of crime is that it is a morally corrupt action. An action that begets harm.
This is a confusing topic cause, in a way, I think that crime is justifiable. However, only you can decide this.
Let's say, you stole to feed your family or you stole to offer help or maybe you've been attacked and assaulted in your own home but you may have gone overboard with reasonable force to protect you and your family or maybe you did something that seemed right and was for a good cause but it was a legally wrong act...would these not be justifiable reasons to you?
These are all interesting scenarios but ones that a modern legal system doesn't have time for.
Theres plenty of reasons why a person could stoop to committing a criminal offence and hard as it may seem, he has to be able to justify his actions in his own mind without direct access to a court to aid him.
This is why they have simplified ethical
considerations, in everyday operations, to, "Is this or is this not illegal? Does society as a whole currently allow this?"
A "justified crime" is likely one that all or a large section of a culture morally supports, but one thar the law has criminalized for whatever reason. Or we can say that it's one where you can prove that not carrying out that crime has far worse effects.
A crime can be justified. That doesn't make it any less a crime. Just taking all the circumstances into account, any reasonable person might have done the same thing. Whether or not a person should be punished in such situations is a question for the judicial system.
However, anyone who knowingly commits a crime should be willing to pay the penalty. That is, "I knew it was a crime. But under the circumstances, I did what I believed I had to do, aself-defenserepared to accept my punishment. "
Then there's self-defense and dfence of others, necessity -mplying the need to commiting a crime in order to prevent greater harm, etc, within some limits - which I consider justifiable.
For me, I think that the intent matters before we can consider a crime justified or not. Causing harm for vengeance sakes may not be justified but as self-defense, it will be. It does matter what the objective is.
But then, seeing that the term crime generally means an act which is not justified or which is forbidden by the court of law and which is done against the society, if,it is justificable when then do we label it so?
Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!