How Did Hammurabi Laws Control Society

Structure is very important when creating a Country, city, or government. Without structure there would be wide spread chaos. Without laws in place to hold people accountable for their actions, there will be people committing crimes without second thoughts. Just a few issues that needed to be answered in order to have a thriving country. To tackle these issues Laws were put in place to control behavior in society. As we know to this day the first law that was put in place, date back to biblical times. During the Adam & Eve time, when god told Adam & Eve not to eat from the forbidden tree of life. Which they broke the law when they ate from the forbidden tree. Many others after would create laws to control society. One of the most well-known

Hammurabi created a total of 282 laws. Which consisted of laws and punishments for an assortment of crimes. Hammurabi also broke down society into 3 classes’ nobles and rich landowners, middle and poor social classes, and slaves. Hammurabi contribution to law is what help mold Criminal Law as we know it today. Hammurabi laws still lacked fairness, doing King Hammurabi time a lot of the punishments that were passed down, did not match the crimes. Hammurabi way of thinking was an eye for an eye. Meaning you steal I take your hand. There was a lot of unfair punishments being passed down, seeing that majority of the people back then could not even read the laws. Looking at King Hammurabi time of rule we can see in modern day law how far we have come. We now divided crimes into two categories Felony and misdemeanor. Felonies are for serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery. Misdemeanor are petty crimes such as drinking in public, and fighting. Committed a crime such as murder can result in death, where fighting will result in doing community service or a fine. Holding people responsible for their actions. The person in power overall objective. Laws are created to control society, to deter criminals from committing crimes and to enforce social

To criminal laws being divided by seriousness of the crime committed to now present day. The reason for all the change is because of present day change in social and culture changes. For example in the 1950 a man 27 was able to marry a 12 year old girl and call her his wife. Now present day law would consider him a rapist. The laws will continue to evolve just as the mind, and culture and society. What is a petty crime, to steal someone else’s property may well be a sentence of being sent to another planet. Only time will tell what our Criminal Laws will evolve to