Personal Essay: Why Do People Break The Law

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Why do people break the law? This question has always interested me, along with why the majority of people abide by laws.

I have followed many cases over the years via articles, news, and documentaries where the uncovering of motives for crimes and how the legal system deals with their offences, was my primary focus. Recently I had the opportunity to take part in the Sir Rhys Davies mock trial with my school and this enabled me to work on, and present, a case at Manchester Crown Court in front of a High Court Judge, whilst being supported by qualified barristers. This gave me an insight into the British Legal system and how to construct a sophisticated argument for a case. My partner and I formed the defence advocates for our client, and we presented once again in the final to the Judge. This meant we had to create cross-examinations for our witnesses and present these to the court and had to adapt our questioning based on the witness’s responses, to enable the best outcome from our cross-examinations. …show more content…

This was a very rewarding job especially when I got the chance to speak with some of the children in between activities. Many of the children, despite having a disability and coming from a disadvantaged background, had aspirations for careers such as law and medicine and for me this emphasised the myriad opportunities we have in the UK. Whilst there I was able to acknowledge the differences between the English and Indian Legal systems and this exemplified how diverse, complex and different the legal systems are in different countries (diverse and different are synonymous, choose another word/point?). To learn more about this topic I read exerts from the book ‘Legal Systems of the World’, edited by Herbert M. Kritzer, which stimulated my interest further by highlighting the many fascinating aspects and idiosyncrasies of law around the