Jeff Santos Essays - Ethics, Criminal Law, Law, Codes Of Conduct

Jeff Santos 2/12/2018 Western Civilization Prof. Lurie Lex Talionis The Law of Reciprocity" Lex talionis is a principle code that is found in the Babylonian law that says "whereby a punishment resembles the offense committed in kind and degree." It was thought that if the society was not abided by this law, then people would always look to seek revenge on those who hurt them. At times, it would lead to someone's death or destruction of one's family. That is if and only if the two were within the same social status. Due to all of this, Lex talionis is considered or interpreted as Hammurabi's (1792-1750 BC) favorite line "an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth". Hammurabi was one of the kids during the First Babylonian Dynasty. Lex talionis also follows the law of exact reciprocity and an example of this is if someone was to go to kill another person, then the criminal will be punished by having his or her life taken in return for killing the other. This can also be interpreted as "law of retaliation". That being said, a death does not always follow another death. As lon g as the retaliation is very minimal in the crime, basically anything is fine. For instance, instead of a punishment leading to another death, the criminal will pay a sum valued of the life he took and move on with his life. Obviously, these types of cases are more likely to occur as the modern day proceeds, where "an eye for an eye" becomes obsolete. Although precise punishment was the preferred way back in the Mesopotamian Era, "an eye for an eye" was not always the correct style of going about it. In my opinion there should have been better forms of reciprocity instead of dealing with crimes with more crimes. However, I do agree that punishment for a crime is a must, but they should vary depending on the severity and the circumstances of the crime itself. While lots may think that Lex talionis will be there control to mellow out the crime rates, it can also establish fear into the society where any little thing can be punishable to the full extreme that the law enforces. To add, a person in power may also take matters into their own hands and take actions as they please. Lex talionis has an extremely thin line that does not give you much course of action after a crime is committed. There should be some type of flexibility in the level of crimes and punishment. Does murder and stealing or lying have the same punishment as eac h other? Murder and stealing are two totally different crimes so where the line in the sand should be drawn? In most cases the line was not drawn but for me all crimes should be judged based on the severity of the crime and the circumstances of punishment should vary. Adding on top types of crimes, according to the Bible a lie is a sin which would mean that lying would be a possible serious punishment. In order to prevent one from telling a lie is to simply cut his or her tongue off. Everyone has lied at some point of their life so in that case, everyone in the village would be walking around without a tongue. Another thing you have to think about is what if it was a child performing the act of lying or stealing. In the case of stealing, sometimes they do not might not have known any better. So what does this mean? Do they get their hand cut off just like the rest? The child has done nothing to be put into the situation but it was simply forced into it because of the society it lives in. In the child's case, instead of mutilation, a better option may be to return what was taken. In my opinion you should punish the child with some type of work because usually children have a low work ethic and they do not want to work for anything especially whe n they do not get anything in return. After all, a boy or girl with a disability will do no good for anyone.