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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Lawmakers should be cautious when criminalizing conduct l... — Carmelics
    Home/Justice & Punishment
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Lawmakers should be cautious when criminalizing conduct like sodomy that is typically not witnessed by several people

    Justice & PunishmentRights & Liberty
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Crimes not typically carried out in the presence of several witnesses are difficult to prove
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    • 2.Criminalizing such conduct opens a very wide door to calumny
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    • 3.Laws should not facilitate false accusations against innocent persons
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The evidentiary difficulty of proving a crime is a reason to reform investigative procedures, not to decriminalize the underlying conduct.
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    • 2.Blackstone and the common law tradition held that some wrongs are so grave that society must prosecute them even when proof is hard to obtain.
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    • 3.Accepting evidentiary difficulty as grounds for decriminalization would equally require abandoning laws against private fraud, poisoning, and conspiracy.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Natural law theorists from Aquinas onward held that positive law has an obligation to reinforce moral norms independent of enforcement practicality.
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    • 2.A law's expressive function—publicly affirming community moral standards—retains value even when direct prosecution is rare or difficult.
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    Topics

    Justice & PunishmentRights & Liberty

    Connections

    1 topic

    Truth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    A law's expressive function—publicly affirming community moral standards—retains...Accepting evidentiary difficulty as grounds for decriminalization would equally ...Blackstone and the common law tradition held that some wrongs are so grave that ...Crimes not typically carried out in the presence of several witnesses are diffic...
    +4 moreShow less
    Criminalizing such conduct opens a very wide door to calumnyLaws should not facilitate false accusations against innocent personsNatural law theorists from Aquinas onward held that positive law has an obligati...The evidentiary difficulty of proving a crime is a reason to reform investigativ...

    Similar

    Acts that are publicly indecent may be rightly prohibited by law, even...72%Laws should not concern offenses against God70%Devlin's moralistic proposals regarding homosexuality, prostitution, a...70%Laws should not criminalize conduct that is inherently hard to prove, ...70%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: montesquieu
    View source passageHide passage
    Liberty also requires that the laws concern only threats to public order and security, since such laws will protect us from harm while leaving us free to do as many other things as possible. Thus, for instance, the laws should not concern offenses against God, since He does not require their protection. They should not prohibit what they do not need to prohibit: "all punishment which is not derived from necessity is tyrannical. The law is not a mere act of power; things in their own nature indif
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit