Grade this essay

[bbq45]

Can someone please grade this issue essay :

Topic : 

A person who knowingly commits a crime has broken the social contract and should not retain any civil rights or the right to benefit from his or her own labor.

 

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.  

 

Response :

Should a person who knowingly commits a crime be deprived of his/her social rights and to benefit from their own labour ? This is the claim made in the statement. While I agree to the statement to some extent, I do not support it wholeheartedly. While I believe that a person knowingly commiting a crime does certainly violate a social protocol, taking unfair advantages of all the facilities the society provides him, depriving a person of one's civil rights seems a little far fetched.
             First of all, I would like to argue that the civil rights are granted by the constitution of a nation. These are some basic rights guarenteed to a free citizen of a country. The constitution or law also mentions appropriate punishments for respective crimes, but to revoke one's basic rights after one has served those punishments is too extreme. We get to hear stories how many criminals are reformed after serving their punishments and it would be very unjust to not give them a second chance. Also right to earn from one's own labour is a person's birthright and again taking it away from criminals after they return to their normal life is not right. By taking away these basic rights, we would be permanently closing a criminal's return to normal life. In amny cases it does happen that the society does benefit from people who were once convicted of a crime, but are now transformed into completely different responsible citizens. Keeping these points in mind, I believe that serving the penalty of a crime is all that is needed and we need not take any actions further.
             Second, I would also like to focus on the word "knowingly" used by the author. Who is to decide whether a crime was commited knowingly or unknowingly ? Of course, while crimes like theft, murders or acts of terrorism can be certainly classified as crimes as commited knowingly, in today's world, there are a lot of computer based crimes that many people unknowingly commit. It does happen many times that unknowingly clicking on a unsuspicious looking link or browsing a otherwise harmless looking website can lead us to unknowingly commiting a cyber crime. Who are the best judge of such situations ? It is for situations like this that I cannot agree completely with the claim. These "criminals" who in this case were victims themselvevs, undoubtedly deserve a second chance. This arguments apply equally aptly for crimes commited in fits of rage or those that happen very suddenly. Many times juveniles are involved in such cases. These individuals surely do need a second chance to set them in the correct path which shall help them and the society as a whole.   
             However, I concede with the claim that some crimes are so heinous that the criminals deserve much harsher punishments. However, I think such cases should be dealt separately where the court of law may think about putting the claim into action. I oppose to the claim unfairly generalising its argument to all crimes commited. Maybe the criminal system and the law may be reformed in the above mentioned way.
             In conclusion, I would like to bloster my stand on the claim by reiterating the above claims made and their validity. While I agree with the claim to some extent in some cases, I believe it would be unfair and unjust to generalise the claim to all cases. Civil rights and the right to benefit from our own hard work is out birthrifght and I believe it should not be revoked in all cases for the criminals.