Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 48

The Lawrence v. Texas and Bowers v. Hardwick cases demonstrate how different cultural values across the United States manifest themselves in criminal laws. For instance, Texas and Georgia criminalized sodomy between consenting males even though such conduct was legal in many other states. On this topic, at least, you can reasonably conclude that the cultural values of Texas and Georgia probably differ from those of Massachusetts or Vermont.

Each state has its own electoral process and its own court system, so each state may develop laws (including criminal laws) that reflect the will and values of its people.

Outside of the United States, criminal laws are even more diverse, which demonstrate the dramatic cultural differences among different countries. For example, some Islamic countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, follow a code of laws based on their religion, known as sharia law. Based on this law, these countries allow the death penalty for homosexual acts in some circumstances. Also under sharia law, someone guilty of a crime such as theft may be punished by imprisonment and by amputation of hands — if the person has a very serious criminal history. Clearly, the cultures — as well as some of the laws — of these countries differ greatly from those of the United States.