A Philosophic Look at Crime

“Crime is today the dismal habit of a police controlled society and morality”.

When we look at crime we think of people killing or doing something bad that they will be punished for. We do not look at what crime actually is. Crime is a word introduced by society. The powers, which ever they may be, decide what is crime and what is not. Without a police controlled society and morality crime would not exist. Everything would be permitted or nothing would be permitted at all.

One thing that is ironic with the government controlling crime is that they could be considered guilty of crime as well. Camus mentions that the right to live cannot be denied by others. The government makes this decision with capital punishment. When executioners kill they are taking life into their hands. They are just as guilty as the for what the person did that is being executed. ‘Hatred for the death penalty is at first no more than a hatred for men who are sufficiently convinced of their own virtue to dare to inflict capital punishment, when they themselves are criminals’ (40). If we are to even take an educated opinion we need to decide that if we are for some murders than we need to be for all murders.

The story of two executioners is told. When they go up to the mountain to kill they are left alone with this incredible power. The executing that they performed gave them this taste for complete power, life and death. Now they must destroy each other because of this possession to take someone else’s life into their hands.

Crime can also be looked at from the “God” perspective. Religion also decides what is crime and what is not. Crime is looked at as trying to be in control of life and death, trying to be God. Therefore God is in charge of the killing. This would then make all crime acceptable. The problem is that we live in a society drenched in religion and in “morality”. Who says that killings are even wrong? What if we are riding the world of a future of injustice? What if we are saving that person from living? If the idea of pain exists and if God is the creator, then he must be the one that creates pain. If this is so, then that excuses all “crime” in a morality/religion sense.