Why We Need Laws Essay -- essays research papers

The American Heritage Dictionary defines justness as a expression of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority. Since all the same the most primitive forms of life pay back been known to live by some rule of conduct, by definition, law has existed before the dawn of the human race. However, no other species have adopted laws to fit their immediate needs much than humans. As groups of humans began living in larger and larger groups, rivalry for resources such as food, water, shelter, and even mating partners grew increasingly intense. Therefore, the leaders of these canonic forms of friendship found it necessity to set guidelines for sharing and protecting these resources. As these societies grew in complexity, so did the need for laws. While in its nascent wooden leg law primarily protected tangibles such as life, limb, and property, the scope of laws has large to encompass moral values as well. However, these values often differed from golf-clu b to cabaret. With each passing year, more than and more laws are coming into effect. Consequently, more and more people are growing incognizant of the laws that govern them. In effect, this ignorance of the law nullifies its effectiveness as a admonishrent of crime. Therefore, modern law has taken a more passive role as a medium for holding people accountable for their actions.Voltaire once said that a flock of laws in a country is like a great add together of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady. Historically, laws have been created in an attempt to good perceived problems within a society. An epidemic of adultery must have occurred before laws forbidding such activity came into existence. Several affluent members of society must have been robbed before anti-theft laws were passed. Undoubtedly a number of politicians were prick and killed before gun-control laws were believed to be necessary. For the most part laws are created out of panic of becoming victimized. As i llustrated in the preceding examples, most laws are intentional specifically to address crimes in which the distinction between an offender and a victim is clear. However, laws against so-called victimless crimes suggest that its intent exceeds that of unmixed protection. For instance, according to atomic number 20 Penal Code 286, sodomy is sexual conduct consisting of contact between the fellow member of one person and the anus of another person. Any sexual penetra... ... person, simply relying on an individuals sense of morality in respect to self-government would result in inevitable sociological chaos. This holds especially true for those who lack the mental capability to differentiate between moral and immoral behavior. Although some laws have been turn out to be effective deterrents of crime, this holds true only for those laws that are known to exist. Furthermore, it is necessary to remember that even the most severe of punishments will not deter the motivated criminal . Therefore, the very essence of law is reduced to a mere mechanism to hold people accountable for their actions or lack thereof. answerableness for the law, regardless of moral beliefs, must be applied unconditionally and without wrong to all persons within the jurisdiction of the governing body in target to safeguard the laws effectiveness. Although this can be construed as force-feeding perceived moral beliefs upon the society as a whole, accountability is necessary to insure that the violators of crimes are mightily punished for their actions. Without such universal accountability, it would be impossible to apply laws upon a morally diverse and legally ignorant society.