Just like today, thousands of years ago crime followed humans and was present in any culture. It did not matter where in the world or how advanced the nation was, crime was unavoidable and expected. Societal norms, values, and cultures shape and reflect a countries legal system and how they deal with criminals and punishment. Many past empires and countries have made significant contributions to the formation of modern criminal justice systems around the world. The history of crime and punishment has evolved tremendously over time and can be reflected from sets of ancient laws, harsh punishments, and inequalities of certain groups of people from the past. In any civilization that has had a significant impact on today's response to crime …show more content…
Throughout history and the world, the debate over the kind of punishment for certain crimes existed just as it does today. In the Draconian era, the death penalty was given to almost every type of crime. There was no difference between stealing vegetables or murder, capital punishment always followed. As civilizations grew and politics changed so did punishments towards crime and law started to favor a punishment that fits the crime. Hammurabi's code also outlined the punishments for the type of crimes committed. If a man put out an eye of another man, his eye shall be put out or financial compensation was given if a farmer failed to maintain a proper dam that flooded his neighbor's field. In the Roman empire exile was the punishment for unintentional homicide but the death penalty was given for intentional homicide. Even a few hundreds a years ago in the newly established Australian colony, the transport from Europe eventually became a fearful punishment for many convicts. The punishment must fit the crime committed and it has taken hundreds and thousands of years of suffering and trial and error to allow a modern law to exist in most …show more content…
However, upon reviewing crime and punishment in history the overwhelming majority of human history there has been plenty of suffering, discrimination, and inequality in punishment so many places. Some could even argue today that there needs to be more equality, but compared history its much better. In the Hammurabi's code era there was slavery and it reflected in the punishment given to people. If a man put out the eye of a freedman or a slave, the punishment wouldn't be an eye like before, but different. There would financial compensation of one gold Mina for the freedman and even less for a slave. The punishment was worse for non-citizens than for citizens in the Roman Empire. Non-citizens were considered less honorable and significant as their lives were much harder. Even in the more recent history of the United States is their drugs policies and punishments. Starting in the early twentieth century Chinese specifically targeted for opium drug use and the punishments were much different than their white counterparts. Later with the start of the 'War on Drugs' and racism, African Americans were targeted for drug use and their punishments were longer than white
Ancient laws were brutal. Babylonian laws, like Hammurabi's Code, included physical torture and death as punishments. The rule behind these punishments was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."Hammurabi was the name of the king in the city-state of Babylon who ruled for nearly 4,000 years ago.This code was a set of 282 laws that maintained order. Hammurabi's Code was unjust because accidents were punished, punishments for intentional damage was extreme, and it focused on revenge instead of preventing future crime.
Hammurabi’s code was a just law system that used the influence of gods and harsh punishments to scare people away from crime to maintain the order of his society. Hammurabi was an 18th century BCE king in Babylonia, in addition to his big title he was famous for the creation of a 282 law code. His laws were very exact in that there was a law for any situation. These laws are famous for the harsh punishments Hammurabi allotted for crimes committed by people living under his rule. The question asked when looking at his laws are were they just? But if you look at the categories of family, property and injury it is clear that they are.
Hammurabi’s Code and the US Constitution contrast because they have different punishments for the same crimes, they get their power from different sources, and because men, women and slaves are treated differently. Hammurabi's Code and the US Constitution contrast because they have different punishments for the same crimes. For example, petty (low value) theft in the US can result in charges from $500 to $1000, whereas it resulted in death according to Hammurabi’s Code. Another transgression that has very different punishments is abducting “stealing” a minor. In America, the punishment is serving a term in prison for up to five years.
Hammurabi’s code was based on the saying ‘an eye for an eye’. This means that the retribution for the crime would roughly fit the severity of the crime. For example, if someone poked someone’s eye out, someone would poke that someone’s eye out. I think this is fair because it doesn’t make sense any other way. For instance, if one was jailed ten years for a minor theft (a purse, a bike, etc.) and someone else was jailed ten years for a major theft (robbing the bank, stealing a valuable painting, etc.), that wouldn’t be reasonable. In Hammurabi’s ‘an eye for an eye’ theory, all the punishments are equal to the crime, which is very practical. Most of his laws are based on this.
Hammurabi understood that, to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered. His punishments were harsh, for example if someone stabs you in the eye and you lose that eye, then you take their eye to be fair. Both Hammurabi and Shi Huangdi were harsh and carried some totalitarian aspects in their ruling.
The Code of Hammurabi has a slightly different way of describing the way a society should maintain stability and avoid chaos. In this code of conduct it is more on the lines of something similar to the Bill of Rights where each idea is stated in form of a law. For example, in the 15th amendment of The Code it staes “15: If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates [to escape], he shall be put to death.” It is a listed set of laws followed by a consequence whether it is minor or as harsh as the death penalty. If such harsh punishments were informed, I believe the law makers or theorists saw it as a type of scare which would prevent people from committing the crime. There are those people who do break the law and make stupid decisions, but it would keep the amount of people making stupid decisions and breaking the law to a
During the early civilization of Babylonia arose King Hammurabi, which whom set fourth a moral code of written laws. These laws were strictly enforced by harsh punishments in which the people of Babylonia abided by. The moral codes were created by King Hammurabi to maintain order and stability in Babylonia. The basis for these laws were enforced by the saying "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." This meant that if harm was done to you by someone of the same social status, the equivalent harm would be done to them. This was only one of the codes Hammurabi strictly abided by. These codes are extremely far different from present day laws in our societies today.
The criminal justice system has been evolving since the first colonists came to America. At first, the colonists used a criminal justice system that mirrored those in England, France, and Holland. Slowly the French and Dutch influences faded away leaving what was considered the English common law system. The common law system was nothing more than a set of rules used to solve problems within the communities. This system was not based on laws or codes, but simply that of previous decisions handed down by judges. Although rudimentary, this common law system did make the distinction between misdemeanors and the more serious crimes known as felonies.
The formers of the Hammurabi’s Code of Laws surely created strict rules with severe punishments for their violation. In fact, these laws played a big role in organization of Mesopotamian society. Reading these laws, reader may learn about ideals people of Mesopotamia had about crimes, their attitude to the lower and higher social classes, and legal rights between men and women. Reading the laws I noticed that many crimes were punished by death penalty. Many laws tell that guilty person has to pay the same price for the physical harm one did to another person or one’s relative. For instance: law 196 states (encyclopedia.com): “ If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” In addition, at that time, people were penalized to death for many crimes or wrongdoings that almost never would be penalized with capital punishment at a modern time. Among such felony and misdemeanors are stealing, robbery, accusation, adultery, and desertion. Hammurabi’s Code also, reveals inequality between social classes. Slaves were not treated by the laws the same as free-born people. According to the Code of Hammurabi, women had some legal rights, but these rights were not equal to men’s. Married women had a right to divorce as well as men. In fact, in order to acquire the right for divorce, a woman has to find a reasonable explanation for her desire, and only than the divorce could be possible.
Saint Augustine once said, “In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?” The criminal justice system in America has been documented time and time again as being a legal system that borders on the surreal. We as Americans live in a country where the Justice Department has failed to collect on $7 billion in fines and restitutions from thirty-seven thousand corporations and individuals convicted of white collar crime. That same Justice Department while instead spending more than 350% since 1980 on total incarceration expenditures totaling $80 billion dollars. America has become a place where a 71-year-old man will get 150 years in prison for stealing $68 billion dollars from nearly everyone in the country and a five-time petty offender in Dallas was sentenced to one thousand years in prison for stealing $73.
The Hammurabi Code is the oldest and most comprehensive set of laws in the world. The 282 laws set the structure for the civilization of Mesopotamia. Hammurabi, who was the sixth king of Mesopotamia, created these laws for a sense of order and peace. However, when investigating these laws further, they seem unfair and unjust for many reasons. People would be punished differently based on their class status. The punishments were harsher towards the freemen, rather than slaves. Although the Hammurabi Code worked to keep order and justice, discrimination existed between slaves and freemen, men and women, and adults and children.
The criminal justice system is composed of three parts – Police, Courts and Corrections – and all three work together to protect an individual’s rights and the rights of society to live without fear of being a victim of crime. According to merriam-webster.com, crime is defined as “an act that is forbidden or omission of a duty that is commanded by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law.” When all the three parts work together, it makes the criminal justice system function like a well tuned machine.
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfarism and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years.
With the world expanding and explorers setting out to discover new lands, the ability to reach out to other civilizations is becoming a reality. The discovery of new drugs or rare items in other lands, led to criminal groups expanding their reach to take advantage of the new market. Many new communities that were built lacked adequate protection or law enforcement which led to small groups of marauders that would terrorize the settlers and take their food and supplies. This also developed relationships with people in two different nations that had a common goal. A crime g...
Throughout all of history, people have broken the law and had to face consequences. You may be familiar with the criminal punishments of today and believe that they are very appropriate, but it will blow your mind to see what used to be considered appropriate in ancient times. Criminal punishment seems to have a very important impact on educating us about the past because it can tell you a lot of things about that time. When you understand how the actual crimes being committed have changed you can see how we have evolved in time. You can also tell by how we punished them how we used to see things differently. I believe that we have gotten a lot more humane since ancient times.