1 Justice

In this world there is only one thing of real value, to pass our days in truth and justice, and yet be gracious to those who are false and unjust. (Marcus Aurelius - Meditation p.56)

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1.1 Nothing is just by itself

Protagoras in Plato’s Theatetus argues that what is just for a given city is simply what is enjoined by law or convention, and denies that anything is just in itself, independently of people’s holding it to be so. (Plato Theatetus)

Most people, as a rule, are bad judges where their own interests are involved. (Aristotle Politics Oxford p. 103) 

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1.2 Structure

Judicial element: One for the review of the conduct of the public officials; a second for dealing with any offense against any point of public interest; a third for cases which bear on the constitution; a forth (which includes in its scope both officials and private persons) for cases of dispute about the amount of fines: a fifth for contracts between private persons, where a considerable amount is involved: in addition, there are those which deal with homicide and with cases concerning aliens. (Aristotle Politics Oxford p. 175)

Practical justice: criminal and court Universal justice: relation with neighbor Distributive justice: military and commercial Reactionary justice: crimes and contracts. (Aristotle The Eudemian Ethics p.xxx)

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1.3 Foundation

So if the action is something that cannot be precisely defined but one is obligated to legislate, one has no choice but to generalize. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p.51)

Actions that deserve compassion (equity): Human failings Whole picture, not the details Choose words rather than action to decide issues. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p.52)

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2 Crime

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2.1 What would you do if your actions didn’t have consequences?

Plato: Gyges went down into the chasm, and there he comes upon a horse made of bronze, with a door in its side. He opened the door, and found inside the body of a dead man with superhuman stature, wearing a golden ring. Gyges took off the ring and placed it upon his fingers. (...) He found that by touring the bezel of the ring inwards in the direction of the palm of his hand - he becomes invisible, though he himself continued to see perfectly: and he only become visible again by turning the ring back into the previous position. So he exploited the opportunities thus given him. He seduced the queen, and with her help murdered his royal master. Then he removed everyone whom he believed to stand in his way. In these crimes, he remained entirely undetected. By using the ring in this way, he quickly rose to be king of Lydia. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.172). (...) Picture the same ring in the hands of someone truly wise. He would not consider that its possession entitled him to do wrong any more than if it did not belong to him. For to act secretly is not what a good man aims at; what wants to do is act rightly. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.172)

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2.2 Why they happen

The greatest crimes are committed not for the sake of necessity, but for the sake of superfluities. (Aristotle Politics Oxford p. 59)

It follows that the transgressor can never achieve any subsequent gain which will equal the loss of goodness already involved in his transgression. (Aristotle Politics Oxford p. 259)

If he broke the law, we would be to blame. Because if we were better he wouldn’t have committed the crime. (Fyodor Dostoevsky - Os Irmao Karamazov (Editora 34)

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2.3 Why they do it?

A deed (crime) can be done, and can be done by them - which is to say that they think either a) they can get away with it, or b) that if they are caught they will avoid punishment, or c) that if they are punished the penalty paid by themselves or those they care for will be less then their profit. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p.45)

Crimes are done because of Wrongdoing - unpunished If they have often failed (or are new to struggle) If pleasure is immediate and pain distant, or if the profit is immediate and the punishment distant.

Lust will drive men to every sin and crime over the sun. Mere lust, without any impulse, is the cause of rape, adultery, and every other sexual outrage. Nature, or a good, has given human beings a mind as their outstanding possession, and this devourer gift and endorsement has no worse foe than sensuality. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.228)

Now let my heart tell you what it was seeking there in that I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake. (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.29)

No one would commit murder without a motive, merely because he took pleasure in killing. (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.30)

I directed my mind to understand what I was being told, namely that the free choice of the will is the reason why we do wrong and suffer your just judgment. (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.113)

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2.4 Who suffers it?

What type of people are the victims. Those who have something he lacks Trusting people Those who could not care less. People when are easily embarrassed, because they are unlikely to make a fuss about money. Those who have never been wronged, as well as those who have often been wronged, because neither of them take precautions, either because it has never happened to them or because they do not expect it to happen again. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p.47) 

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2.5 Types of wrongdoings

So the wrong a mean man does has to do with money; the wrong a licentious man does, with physical pleasure; the pleasure; the wrong a self-indulgent man does, with comfort; the wrong a coward does, with danger (he does wrong in that fear makes him abandon those who are facing danger alongside him) (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p.38)

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3 The judge

On earth, there can be no judge of a criminal without that same judge first knowing that he is also as criminal as the one in front of him, and more than anyone else, he may be guilty of the crime before him. (Fyodor Dostoevsky - Os Irmao Karamazov (Editora 34)

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3.1 The punishment

The punishment for crime frightens the criminal much less because he himself complains (morally) monumentally. (Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime e Castigo (Editora 34)

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3.2 The right crime

There could be 10 more terrible crime than to kill someone who is not merely a fellow human being but a close friend. Yet surely someone who kills a tyrant, however close friends the two men have been, has not committed a crime. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.165)