Do you think adultery should be criminalized?
You must be a Democrat. As despicable as adultery is, we can't police and regulate every aspect of everyone's lives. Otherwise we will end up living like the former Soviet Union - a police state where you have zero personal freedom. Then you get into other areas too where not everyone agrees on what is right or wrong. In those cases, who's opinion do we mandate as correct? We live (and I wouldn't have it any other way) in a free society. Unfortunately that also gives some people the freedom to make really bad choices, both in selecting bad mates as many do and in some mates choosing to cheat. As much as that is detrimental (and yes, I have been cheated on) I would not choose to live in a society where the government dictated morals. Hitler tried that and you see where it got him. In most states, adultery is grounds for divorce, and most states have either alimony or are a community property state, so divorce 'em and get as much as you can from the cheaters, but leave the government out of it. They can barely handle the post office! -------------------------- If your spouse gave you AIDS that they got from an out of wedlock affair, that is a prosecuatable crime. It's just not the adultery that is the crime, it's the giving you an uncurable and potentially fatal disease.
What is the difference between deviance and criminality?
Deviance is doing anything that goes against societal norms. Criminality is doing anything that goes against society's laws. They are related in that most of our laws deal with deviant behavior. You can't murder someone, steal from someone, etc. These are laws. You can wear a block of cheese on your head, paint your face different colors, get tattooed all over your body. These are deviant acts. I think everyone is deviant in at least one aspect of their lives - the norms that a society forms are what the average acceptable behavior is for that society so it's going to be somewhere in the middle of how people behave. You also need to consider that not all criminal behaviors are deviant. I usually speed when I'm driving. It's against the law to do so, but it's in no way deviant. I've got plenty of company when I'm driving fast! Illegal immigration is against the law, but there are lots of illegal immigrants here. That's not a deviant act.
What are some examples of crimes that are not deviant?
Cutting the tag off your mattress. You know, the one that says "do not remove under penalty of law" or something like that. That's not deviant. Sex crimes, child molestation and other crimes of violence are deviant.
Should there be a legal curfew for minors?
No. There are a few problems with curfews.They are the worst type of over broad government policy — they literally assume bad conduct by people merely by virtue of a simple demographic characteristic (age), which is arbitrary and intellectually dishonest. If we want to actually profile people, honestly, we should have a curfew that applies to white men (like me), since white men far and away commit the most crime in the United States. And obviously that would be absurd, because it is penalizes the vast majority of white men who are not committing crimes. The policy should be to prosecute people who have chosen to commit crimes, not to pre-emptively penalize people who may do something.Curfews have a nasty tradition in the United States as being pretexts applies mainly to young people of color, much like anti-loitering laws.
Is Crime in the genes?
What if scientists were able to prove that genetic defects at birth leave a child open to brain development that is prone to criminal behavior, such as "kleptos", "abusive people" "rapists" "serial killers." If that was the case, wouldn't it be seen more as a disease then a crime, and if these people get "cured" through genetic therapy, should they be held as accountable for something they had no control over just as much as someone who ended up with cancer? I know nobody wants to think this way, but I feel as we advance further in science, we will soon realize that old ideas of things painted in black and white. good and evil are outdated and its really nature and nurture that sets the tone.