SOC313H1 Lecture 2: SOC313 Lecture Two – January 21
Document Summary
Consensus crimes are relatively universally bad (i. e. murder, rape, assault) because they inflict. Crimes of morality or victimless crimes are always changing, vary geographically and historically. Gambling is a morality crime because laws have changed over time. Gambling is favoured for the revenue it can create, argued against because it can target vulnerable populations and is also an addiction that affects families, poverty rates, etc. Drug laws are a morality crime because when we say drugs, alcohol and cigarettes don"t come to mind as immoral. The way is to examine the effects of it. Morality = good effects, immoral = bad effects. The purpose of the law is to make people happy, any actions that do bad need to be acted against. John stuart mill aims to eliminate the tyranny of the majority. People have a right to do what they want as long as they do not harm others; harm is when the government should be involved.
