Morality and Justice: Causes of Crime
I’ve set this exercise for my Higher class so thought I would share it here in case it’s helpful to anyone:
In the morality and justice section you will be asked two questions – one worth 10 marks and one worth 20 marks.
Candidates tend to include too much knowledge and understanding about conflict and fail to focus on the moral issues. But questions are actually very simple when you break them down a little.
10-mark questions
Analyse non-religious responses to moral issues arising from environmental causes of crime.
In a question like this, you can be awarded 6 marks for knowledge and understanding and 4 marks for analysis.
At first, this might look like a difficult question, but the trick is to work backwards! Let’s look at what that means…
Analyse non-religious responses to moral issues arising from environmental causes of crime.
You should recognise this language from the mandatory content! So, let’s start by describing a consequence of war for the economy and giving an example:
Environmental causes of crime relate to the surroundings in which a person lives or works. (KU) Growing up in a community where crime is prevalent can distort one’s sense of morality, making illegal behaviour seem normal. (KU) For example, Ronnie and Reggie Kray who led the ‘Kray Firm’ were linked to armed robbery, protection rackets, and murder. However, they grew up in a crime-ridden area and their father was often absent from their lives as he was on the run from the police. (KU)
Analyse non-religious responses to moral issues arising from environmental causes of crime.
Now we need to describe a moral issue that this causes:
A moral issue related to environmental causes of crime is whether it is fair to punish those who commit crime when they are not fully responsible for their actions. On the one hand, they had to make the choice to commit crime but on the other hand, they did not choose the environment they were born into. (KU)
Analyse non-religious responses to moral issues arising from consequences of environmental causes of crime.
Now identify a non-religious response you have studied and describe what they believe:
One non-religious viewpoint I have studied is Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham wrote that ‘an action is right if the greatest amount of happiness is created for the greatest number of people.’(KU) He developed the ‘hedonic calculus’ to include more factors in the calculation such as the intensity of the happiness and the length of time it would last. (KU)
We have already scored six knowledge and understanding (KU) marks!
Analyse non-religious responses to moral issues arising from environmental causes of crime.
Notice that the question does NOT ask for the non-religious response to the environmental causes of crime. It also does NOT ask for your opinion or judgement. So, what comes next is applying what Utilitarians think to the moral issue.
Therefore, on the one hand Utilitarians would not view this as a moral problem because if criminals are removed from society (e.g. by being put in prison)then the majority of people will be happy as regardless of the cause, they bring unhappiness to society with their crime. (A)
But on the other hand, Utilitarians view all people as equal and the intensity of unhappiness experience by the criminal and their family would need to be taken into account. Therefore, they would want to ensure that any form of punishment would be proportional and not inflict undue suffering. (A)
At this point, if you are struggling to think of more responses to the moral issue, you could identify a second moral issue and then explain how a utilitarian would respond. Or you could simply keep explaining how they couldrespond to the initial issue:
Additionally, a Utilitarian following the additional factors might highlight that suffering through the environmental causes of crime themselves would create long-term, lasting suffering due to the lack opportunity and poverty that can exist. Therefore, they would see this as a moral issue because they would need to alleviate the cause e.g. through improving education in order to maximise happiness. (A)
However, a Utilitarian could also maintain that the intensity of happiness that victims could experience through seeing justice in action could outweigh this long-lasting suffering. For example, the satisfaction of knowing that laws are fairly applied could outweigh . (A)
20-mark questions
Evaluate religious responses to moral issues arising from causes of crime.
In a question like this you can be awarded up to 10 knowledge and understanding, 5 analysis, and 5 evaluation marks. You would not be asked about a specific type of cause of crime in a 20-mark question. It also helps to work backwards through these questions – whilst the analysis is wider than on a 10 mark question, it does help to follow the same structure.
Evaluate religious responses to moral issues arising from causes of crime.
An environmental cause of crime is poverty. (KU) A lack of opportunity can cause people to turn to crime in desperation or even necessity to survive. (KU)
Evaluate religious responses to moral issues arising from causes of crime.
The moral issue is that many of those who commit crime as a result of poverty, are not freely in control of their actions as they have been driven to that action by things that are beyond their control. (KU) This then leads to the further moral issue of whether it is right to just punish criminals or whether those responsible for the root cause should also take the blame. (KU)
Evaluate religious responses to moral issues arising from l causes of crime.
With questions like this you need to avoid generic statements like ‘Christians believe’ because that fails to acknowledge the diversity of belief amongst religions. Instead try to identify a set position:
One religious response is that of Roman Catholic charity ‘Pact’ – they aim to reflect the teaching of Jesus to help the poor by trying to tackle the root causes of crime rather than just the symptoms. (KU)
Then explain how that belief causes them the respond…
Therefore, Roman Catholics would agree that this is a real moral issue because they recognise that the cause can be alleviated and it is not just a case of telling people to make better choices..(A) They may also petition the government and criticise them for not doing enough to alleviate the cause of crime as Jesus also was vocal in his criticism of the ruling authorities. (A)
Evaluate religious responses to moral issues arising from causes of crime.
Here you simply need to say whether you agree or disagree with this response to the moral issue. However, we’re not interested in whether you are Christian or not – so please don’t say you disagree because you don’t believe in God! Engage with the review
I think that this is a great response because rather than just saying that Jesus would want to help, they are doing that in an active way for example Pact has helped more than 85,000 people in prison in England and Wales.(E) But on the other hand, I don’t think that the symptoms of crime should be ignored because it is also a Christian’s duty to protect victims and crime hurts other people so there still needs to be punishment in place to help victims feel a sense of justice. (E)
At this point, the essay has scored 5KU, 2A, and 2E. Therefore, we are going to aim to do that again, but add some more in depth analysis and evaluation to try and pick up those marks.
Now write the rest of the essay!
