dingodan
New member
- Feb 16, 2011
- 10,080
No deterrent-
The law does not act as an effective deterrent. If someone decides they want to murder somebody, they don't reconsider because it's illegal to commit murder. If someone want's to use drugs, or worse is addicted to drugs, laws will not stop them. The law will remedy an injured party, provide justice, and when someone has been harmed that is right and proper. But to write a law in order to "put people off" committing crime, it is not the way to go.
If you really want to deal with crime then you have to deal with it's causes. When we say we will be "tough on crime" or "tough on drugs" etc and we increase sentences etc, what we are trying to do is make people fear the law, fear is not the motivator that is going to bring about a law abiding and decent society, it's a quick, cheap and politically popular approach, but it doesn't solve the problem, it just allows us to continue to ignore the more fundamental and underlying causes of the problem.
We have a totally misguided approach to the use of force, our careless misuse of law actually makes our society a whole lot worse. When the law is misused people lose respect for the law in general.
"When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law." - Frederic Bastiat