A person who has high moral standards, for some reason commits a crime...!?
Does he or she immediately stop being a good person and suddenly become a criminal?
if not, at what point does he become a criminal??
what can that person do to become a better person?
Answers:
Commit a crime and you are a criminal. Suffer the consequences (penalty) to restore your standing in the community. Although, depending on the crime, they may not be entirely possible.
There are lots of really good people in prison, who upon release are highly unlikely to reoffend. We have fairly draconian laws, such that a higher portion of our population is in prison than that of any other industrial nation. Consider--we have 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prison population.
Everyone makes mistakes. One crime does not necessarily make a person "bad." And many judges will take into consideration a person's past behavior and character when issuing a sentence. First offense? Light sentence. Third offense? Don't expect to see the light of day again soon.
A person becomes a criminal when he or she commits a crime. To become a better person, that person stops committing crimes and 'pays' for the crime he or she committed.
No if you have high moral standards you may have just made a bad choice. It dose not make you a bad person. Just don't commits that crime again. If God will forgive how can anybody judge you. Keep your head up and keep it to move-in.
they are Innocent till prov en guilty.
No all those times that you thought about doing something and never did are the true breaking points.
Everyone *everyone* makes mistakes. Pay your dues and move on. Don't let it ruin your life. You know what kind of person you are. Hold your head high.
Is the law always morally right? Of course not. Take slavery for instance.
Whether or not someone is a 'bad' person is dependent on what makes a person bad. There is no set law for what makes a person bad. Law is not intended to dictate what is morally bad, it is intended to keep order in society. The stigma of law-breaking being morally bad is attached simply to help deter people from breaking the law and thus keeping societal order. For determining whether or not someone has become morally corrupt it would be more appropriate to refer to religion, but then many religions have entirely different views on at what point a person becomes bad and what is morally corrupt. If our society were devoid of religion, we would still value the same set of very basic virtues most if not all reasonable religions teach. So, of course you don't become a bad person when you commit a crime. Per the definition of the word however, you do become a criminal. Don't confuse 'bad person' and criminal as being the same thing, many of the wisest, noblest individuals to ever live were criminals. As for what you can do to be a better person, like I said it has been proven societies without religions will still value basic virtues, so use your common sense to identify those virtues and practice them consistently to be a better person in the eyes of the average person.
Did he shoplift some food because he was starving and broke? Did he get in a fair fight and got arrested for it?
There are only a few crimes that highly moral people might commit. You're not stating the crime, so it's impossible to say.
Uh, well, 2 ideas from the Bible. I think Ezekiel 33 says that if a good man ceases to do good, all the good he had done is forgotten and he is accounted an evildoer, whereas, when an evil man ceases to do evil (repents), the evil he has done will be forgotten and he will be accounted righteous. This has something to do with Man's "seniority" mentality (Check it out with the workers in the vineyard parable Christ told); man wants his good deeds to form an account from which he might withdrawl when he retires (ceases to do good). He (the "righteous") also wants God to punish the long-term evil-doer who repents, and finds it unfair when God does otherwise. (Check out the story of the prodigul son for the elder brother's attitude (sometimes referred to as Calvinism).
The second biblical instance I wanted to balance this first one with is a loop of King David's life. Under King-syndrome
He became a "criminal" when he committed the crime. My husband was in prison for drug offenses. Yes he had to "pay" for it. He realizes he made stupid mistakes and he hasn't since. It just pisses me off how stupid our society is. When he got out and wanted to make a better life for himself (AFTER "supposedly" paying his dues to society) He couldn't find a job ANYWHERE. Nobody wanted an ex-con working for them. I don't understand how prison is suppose to help and to rehabilitate you to get back into the real world...if there is nothing there for you when you get back. They might as well just keep you locked up because you really don't have many options when you get out. You're not a bad person for committing a crime (depending on what it is) everybody makes mistakes.
Morally, you are a criminal if you commit a crime.
Technically, you are a criminal if you get caught.
Legally, you are a criminal if you are convicted.
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