What is the difference between a criminal act and a morally unaethical act?

Question

I am a criminal Justice student

Answer 1

A morally unethical act is not illegal. A criminal act IS illegal.

Answer 2

Criminal acts are those objectively evil or otherwise inappropriate acts that a system of authority has decided to use institutionalized violence to prevent. The reason for this is to make a society harmonious by removing the need for individual acts of violence to protect a person from immoral behavior or to resolve conflicts.

An interesting thing about this question is it invites an unspoken question about the nature of morality. Is it objective or subjective. If morality is objective, then why is there ANY difference between acts that are illegal and acts that are immoral. Likely, they want you to conclude that morality must be subjective, making there disagreement as to what should be legal vs illegal. This is a spurious argument because it ignores the fact that most law is not designed to address immoral behavior at all. Instead, it is designed to arbitrate conflict resolution among competing, yet equally legitimate concerns. Only a tiny fraction of law has to to with moral acts. That is the reason for the mutability. About evil, there is no mutability that is not tied directly to society pathology. Only sick societies disagree about if heinously evil behaviors should be illegal, lol.

Also, the term morally unethical is ignorant. Moral implies objective morality while ethical implies a violation of a subjective code. If I agree to something and then renege, I am acting unethically. If I bash a child's head against a rock and then sodomize the dead body, I'm acting, ummm, immorally. The attempt to blur the line between these two situations is.....troubling, in a criminal justice program. It's important to understand the difference between subjective ethics and objective morality.....VERY important. If you confuse the issue, justice becomes meaningless.

Answer 3

A criminal act is quite simply an act proscribed by the Criminal Code of whatever country you're dealing with. A morally unethical act is not necessarily illegal (contravene the CC, i.e. is criminal), although it may be, but it runs counter to some standard code of conduct - societal, cultural, religious, etc.

Answer 4

A criminal act is breaking the law. A morally unethical act is a act that goes against ones religion.

Answer 5

most criminal acts are morally unethical. it is morally wrong in most contexts to commit sodomy. however, mutual consent makes it legal. it is morally wrong to have sex outside marraige, but it is legal. some religions ban giving or recieving blood, even when the person is dying. it may be morally wrong to let that person die, but it may be legally defensable.

Answer 6

Cheating on your income taxes is a criminal act and cheating on a math test at school is a morally unaethical (sic) act. I could give many more examples to illustrate my point. If you need furthur clarification, please email me.