Religion Is the Basis of All Rules or Laws

The earliest known code of law was the Code of Hammurabi it created a set of punishments for various crimes. The code is described as the “law of retaliation.” Before the response of being a crime victim was revenge, the victim or his family would find the criminal and do something to him, usually worse than the original crime. The punishment sometimes didn’t fit the crime. The definition of criminology is the “scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon, of criminals, and of penal treatment”.

The bible set up a set of rules, such as “an eye for an eye”.

The Ten Commandments were a set of rules that most current laws were and are based on to this day. Religion was the basis for almost all rules or laws. Many different governments used the bible as a guide book to create modern criminal laws. Plato and Aristotle wrote about concepts between crime and punishment. Plato believed crime was due to a poor education.

Plato also believed that the punishment should be based on the degree of fault. Aristotle felt that punishment would be a deterrent to prevent future crimes. The Romans are regarded as the originators of the legal system; the use of Latin is still used in the legal system today.

The legal system moved away from the bible and based criminal acts on making society the victim in the crime. The Roman government then took over the prosecutor’s role to issue punishment, to maintain order in their society.

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The decline of the roman empire brought religion back to the criminal justice system of crime and punishment. Crimes were considered acts of sin caused by the devil. A crime was committed because the “Devil made me do it”.

Punishment was now considered “doing Gods work” to free the criminals of the devil inside them. Going back to the bible, forgiveness and compassion was being used as a tool of justice. The Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas best expressed these notions in his Treatise “Summa Theologica”. It is believed that god has a “Natural Law” and crimes violated the natural law and also separated themselves from God. The crime not only hurt the victim but the criminal also by the separation from God. The idea of pity began at this time, because the criminals were losing out on the relationship with God. These ideas are still used today. Do to the fact a lot of people have a hard time believing in God, the idea that crime separates us from God doesn’t affect some criminals anymore. Because most rulers claimed to have been given their power from God they exercised the power of judgement over the criminals. As part of the separation of church and state the criminal statues became more secular and humanistic.

Modern-day criminology developed out of the study of sociology. Sociology has been used as the basis for the study of criminology to punish criminals and deal with crimes. Our government has created many ways to keep abuses of the criminals from happening. The Italian writer Cesare Beccaria, in his book On Crime and Punishment, advocated for a fixed scale of crime and corresponding punishment based on the severity of the crime. He suggested that the more severe the crime, the more severe the punishment should be. Beccaria believed that the role of judges should be limited to determining guilt or innocence, and that they should issue punishments based on the guidelines set out by the legislatures.

Excessive punishments and abusive judges would be eliminated. Beccaria also believed that preventing crime was more important than punishing it. Therefore, punishment of crime should serve to scare others away from committing those crimes. The thought was that the assurance of swift justice would convince someone otherwise likely to commit a crime to think first about the potential consequences. The justice system in America has come a long way. Is it perfect? “No” Is better than it has been? “Yes” Can it be better? “Yes” The people need to work within the system to help make it a better place.

The criminal acts against peace officers need to stop. If you are treated wrong you have a claim, but if you see something on social media that they say is wrong you don’t get to commit a crime to excuse your actions. The law enforcement community has worked to make all neighborhoods safe for everyone. Criminals live in every part of the city, as a police officer I work to make my beat safe every day. I believe that the work I do is important. I treat everyone with the respect and dignity I expect to receive from them.