Exploration of Criminal Law

by | Mar 16, 2021 | criminal law

As we begin our exploration of Criminal Law, our textbook lays some foundational history as to the role criminal
law has played as it has evolved. Specifically your textbook discusses the differences in positions by Durkheim
and Marx.
Durkheim felt that laws were agreed upon standards of society, but Marx felt that laws were put in place by a
society’s elite to serve the elite’s interests. Compare and Contrast the foundational beliefs of these two
opposing viewpoints.
Which do you think is closer to the truth? Support your position.
Based on which a person feels is the more accurate history of criminal law, do you believe that perspective
“taints” ( for good or bad) the way that they view enforcement of criminal laws and prosecution of suspects?
Thoroughly support your position.
After your required reading and research, what do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of a common
law system?
Over the next several weeks, we will be expounding on the legislative intent ( purpose behind the law) for
specific crimes – this historical perspective discussion will serve as a helpful foundation as we look to modern
society’s codified ( written) laws.
As we discuss the necessary evidence required for Criminal prosecutions of crimes, confessions continue to
come up as valuable pieces of evidence. They ARE valuable…juries especially place significant weight on
them when determining verdicts in criminal trials.
Just to explore the psychology behind “confessions”….Research confessions and locate statistics or data
regarding the truthfulness of confessions and/or the potential for them to be false. Discuss your findings within
this Discussion Forum.
What type of “false confessions” are there? Prior to researching this, had you ever considered if someone
would WILLINGLY confess to a crime they did not commit for any reason? What were some of the reasons
your research suggested this might occur? What is your response to those?
Do you think YOU would ever confess to a crime you did not commit?
What steps, or safeguards, can law enforcement and Prosecutors take to ensure validity of the confessions
that they seek to use in the criminal prosecution of a suspect? How important is this to the “justness” of our
Criminal Justice system?

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


This question has been answered

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

This question has been answered.

Get Answer