The relation between morality and law in my belief, is a continual marriage of ideas and institutional progress, in that, a law cannot be respected nor adhered to by the society if it does not have roots within moral standards of right and wrong.  The idea of a law is to curtail acts, which the society deems as dangerous or contrary to the general welfare of the state.  A law is made by a human mind that must judge whether or not it is just, and it is in this ongoing debate, where moral standards must be a guideline when instituting laws that affect people at large.

When we talk about the biggest issues that continue to plague the community at large, we find our selves putting the acts of drug use, prostitution, and alcohol into our moral microscope.  There are many schools of libertarian thought that say one must be allowed to do as he or she pleases, otherwise they are no longer living in a society that embraces individuality and the freedoms that come with it. It is also seen that if left un checked, the human mind can wander into extremes in which if not curtailed, they evolve into problems that not only effect the said individual, but it begins to share that hazard with others that had nothing to do with the individual’s choices.  This is where the idea of Law is instituted, where, a ruling body must state ground rules that all are to follow in order to preserve order around the body politic.  Drugs and Alcohol for instance, are substances that if not taken with care and moderation, can impair and often make individuals choose poor decisions that affect others around them. We know that some drugs and most alcoholic substances are legal, however, within that legality, there exists checks and balances that are needed to provide a buffer from criminal behavior whether it be intentional or unintentional.

Drugs and Alcohol

There are laws which state that a person cannot drink alcohol until the legal age of 21, and that if a person decides to drink while driving, or they try and buy it at a store, not only will the individual inherit legal trouble and punishment, but the people associated with those crimes will also be held responsible. These laws in theory prohibit the right for those to consume alcohol because younger and inexperienced individuals cannot handle its affects and may either loose their lives or perform acts of criminal activity from the influence of the substance. The moral exchange for these laws is simple, if we allow people to consume alcohol at will, no matter what age, the ending result would be chaos ranging from unsafe roads, out of control youths performing crime, and influences which weaken the security and health of communities around the country. We put these limitations in the books because we know that the certain percentage of the people that would abuse the substance would create a large social problem that would affect the society as a whole. Drugs can be in the same category, as there are over the counter drugs and illegal drugs, the abuse of both can have lasting affects in the same fashion.  People sometimes advocate that the drug Marijuana is a harmless drug because of its scientific qualities towards rehabilitation.  In theory the law should exclude a drug that is seemingly seen as helpful however, in a moral judgment, the inclusion of Marijuana by users is seen as a gateway drug, which makes the individual experiment with harder substances such as cocaine, LSD, or heroin.  In that stage, the individual can become dangerously violent under the influence of these narcotics, which they could perform horrible acts of crime that may injure or kill another person.  We also have laws to govern the sale, use, and production of these hard drugs to curtail its spread to the community because in a moral sense, if we let it be as is, we would inherit inhibitors of crime that you would not have to deal with if the drugs were harnessed with strict laws and harsh penalties.

Prostitution and Pornography

Prostitution and Pornography are another instance in which morality and law clash at a rhetorical level. The production of porn is a part of a distributed media that is controlled by state and federal law because of its exploitations of the human body and what it projects to the people at large.  The visual nature of human sex has been researched in recent times and found that the stimulation can be compared to that of an individual having cocaine high, that is, the same levels of physical and psychological effects are almost identical, thus shedding light that it can be dangerous to the average person if abused. There have been studies of porn addicts in which a seemingly normal person can spend hours in front of a computer searching for explicit material, often times missing appointments, having work quality become reduced, and even putting pressures on social contacts such as spouses and other family members. It may seem intrusive to put a law on a quote “ victimless” medium such as porn, but the after effects that are associated with it can fuel other activities that will lead to a criminal act that does have a victim.  These crimes can include molestation, rape, economic damage, fraud, abuse, and at some extremes, prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases by individuals seeking other means to satisfy themselves besides the partners they have.  The link between the two can create a situation in which a person cannot act in a responsible manner and their ending choice results in a harmful act.  Prostitution can be seen as an arm of pornography, only instead of visual stimulus, it branches off into the physical side of deviant behavior. We put a hold on prostitution for reasons such as human trafficking, abuse, rape, neglect, spreading of diseases, and the promotion of other crimes that can be associated with it. 

Domestic Violence

All four of the activities I have just discussed incidentally, can be traced to the crime of domestic violence. Domestic violence can stem from social pressures that alter the perception of a person in which they believe that physical abuse is a way to treat someone when there is a disagreement or no means of professing their emotions and personal deficiency.  Domestic violence can be fed by above activities in many avenues — porn and prostitution can inhibit sexual needs which can hinder a healthy relationship between two people which results in either the beating of an individual or a confrontation that leads to a violent reaction. Drugs and alcohol can be temporary fixes for an individual that may not understand the situation within their marriage and then promote acts of violence from effects the substances can make upon the human mind. All of these can make a nasty perfect storm for an individual to fall into various forms of addictions and misunderstandings in which the person becomes introduced to crime.  

The above reasons are why I believe that Morality and Law are two institutions that are married into each other to form an inescapable bond. There cannot be just law without moral scopes and trends that guide a person to decide the checks and balances a society will follow in order to promote safe neighborhoods and the order of the state. If one cannot understand the various links from physical to psychological affects of seemingly harmless activities, then they will not understand the overall aspect of preserving a statehood in which people can function in a sane manner to help the progression of humanity in peace.  People will always try and push the envelope if left unchecked and it is the job of the society to make rules and regulations so as to curtail people from creating disturbances that lead to unrest and bedlam.