Act Utilitarian Analysis

In my essay, I will decide whether an Act or Rule utilitarian would provide better guidance for the above scenario, analysing how and why they would react in the ways they possibly would, as well as mention all the other points I will consider in my judgement of whom would provide better guidance. From my viewpoint I believe a Rule utilitarian would provide better judgement of the situation, as it would be the most moral to follow the rules in this situation in particular, rather that act on an unmoral choice to save yourself.
Utilitarianism is a normative theory that is based on the belief that the moral rightness of an action is determined by the consequences it has rather that solely basing it on the notion of duty; motives do not matter

An Act utilitarian would most likely take into consideration that a prison sentence for such a crime is possible to be longer than 10 years and depending on the family situation and whether or not they have young children, would realise that a long sentence would not only impact themselves but the family around them. By accepting their fate and going to jail for a crime they did commit, they would cause unbelievable amounts of unhappiness for their family, and any young children they have would have to grow up without a main parental figure. However, they could be an older citizen with all children, if any at all, away at college or grown up, or a person living alone with no immediate family to abandon, and therefore different consequences would be considered. For instance, a single bachelor with no family in the city or country committing such a crime and going to jail would cause less unhappiness than a middle aged parent with 2 children under 10 going to jail for the same crime would. The consequences of the bachelor going to prison would therefore be much less than the parent, so in an Act utilitarian’s case, they would most likely make the bachelor confess to the crime, but a parent with children to care for would be a much more difficult choice to make, but in the end I believe they would make the tearful woman take the blame, if in such a situation. A

For many people, Act utilitarianism provides a very satisfactory answer to why we should choose to act on particular decisions rather than others, as the answer for the majority of times is to minimise pain and maximise happiness. However, when acting on these decisions, we may come to wonder whether we judge by actual or predicted consequences. In this scenario we can either not confess because their family may be affected, a predicted consequence, or confess because we have no idea of the family situation, an actual consequence. There is also the glaring issue in this scenario that we as moral humans find the idea of sacrificing the innocent for the happiness of others inconceivable. Therefore, making the innocent crying woman in this scenario take the blame would be immoral of us, and countless others would not agree with the choice we made and would most likely have chosen differently based on that. Rule utilitarianism however is a more deontological approach, and it provides clear guidelines on how to react. The principles of happiness, consequences and equality are ones which we all think of when making decisions, and therefore rule utilitarianism is an appropriate approach for many of us