Nature vs nurture

As a wild stab in the dark, I'd say someone who is proven to have committed a crime

That was actually a very good question. How do you define what a crime is? How do you define the boundaries? Who is to have the authority to define the boundaries? I think you'll find that it is pretty tricky to have an absolutist moral stance on anything. What we define as criminal behaviour is arbitrarlily labeled by societies.
I think you missed the point of the question, seeing as your answer seems to be pretty pointless.

I didn't miss anything, you are creating complications which don't exist. The emboldened text confuses moral law with criminal law. I think you'll find they're very different things. A crime is an action or lack of action which goes contrary to law. It really is that simple; you seem intent on over-complicating it.

But it seems pretty obvious that the OP was not talking about why people break the law, but why people commit certain acts which are considered moral evils.

How are you construing this:



From this:



Mentions of crime, no mentions of 'moral evils'.

Exactly my point. They were not asking why people were breaking the law, they were asking why people killed and harmed others (moral evils). The legality of it is irrelevant.

You're not born good or bad.

You're only born with certain tendencies towards being good or bad that can be triggered later on by environmental factors.

Many of your genes may never get turned on at all throughout your life and some genes can be triggered only temporarily.

I didn't miss anything, you are creating complications which don't exist. The emboldened text confuses moral law with criminal law. Who said anything about morality? I think you'll find they're very different things. A crime is an action or lack of action which goes contrary to law. It really is that simple; you seem intent on over-complicating it.

Ok let me rephrase. Do you think you enlightened the person that said 'define a criminal' by saying someone who commits a crime?
I'm assuming a dictionary definition of the term wasn't what the asker was looking for.


Edit: Because you can look in a dictionary for that.

I think I enlightened them by showing them what a stupid question it was.

You're not born good or bad.

You're only born with certain tendencies towards being good or bad that can be triggered later on by environmental factors.

Many of your genes may never get turned on at all throughout your life and some genes can be triggered only temporarily.

That's true to all the qualities you may have. Your risk of obesity (the Pima people of South American are malnourished and thin, but when they move to America, an obesogenic environment, then about 50% of them develop diabetis, 95% of the time alongside obesity or overweight), your risk of certain cancers, your risk of depression or your chances of being outgoing and happy in life.

Well, these studies suggest they are born not bred. I suppose nurture can make problems worse though. Maybe it is a bit of both for some people.

But I go more for nature because lots of people have bad upbringings and situations but only a small percentage of people go on to commit these serious crimes.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2012/08/28/20149676.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5979198/Psychopaths-are-born-not-bred-according-to-a-new-study.html

I didn't miss anything, you are creating complications which don't exist. The emboldened text confuses moral law with criminal law. Who said anything about morality? I think you'll find they're very different things. A crime is an action or lack of action which goes contrary to law. It really is that simple; you seem intent on over-complicating it.

How are laws decided upon?

The legislators we elect decide them

How? What is the process?

Someone nominates a Bill, MPs debate this and then vote. Please get to your point because I don't want to keep being quoted all evening.

Point is, its a social process. So asking questions about how this happens appears entirely relevant to me. Criminals are only criminals due to social processes.