Crime and Punishment....or Lack Thereof

Crime and Punishment….Or Lack Thereof

Imagine a world where the modern prison system ceases to exist: no jail time, no trials, nothing. Instead of trial by jury for heinous acts like murder and theft, those who commit these acts are sentenced to slavery. In Utopia by Thomas More, this type of judicial system, or lack thereof, exists. Because of this system of enslavement, the crime rate drastically decreases and Utopia’s citizens live better lives without fear of being harmed.

The main form of public punishment in Utopia is slavery, not the death penalty or prison. Why is that? First, More says “petty larceny isn’t bad enough to deserve the death penalty, and no penalty on earth will stop people from stealing” (22) and he quotes the Biblical commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’ as his main argument against the death penalty. He says “what’s to prevent human beings from similarly agreeing among themselves to legalize certain types of rape, adultery, or perjury?” (22) in regards to illegal killing (murder). He believes the legalized murdering of criminals breaks God’s law and therefore should have no place in society, especially a Utopian society. Instead, he proposes using slavery as the main form of punishment and uses Utopia as his main example.

Utopian society has no need for crime because all citizens live equally. More writes “everyone on the island wears the same types of clothes…and the fashion never changes” (55), the houses are “allocated by lot and changed round every ten years” (53), and “Besides farming which, as I say, is everybody’s job” (55). Each person has and does what every other citizen does.

The definition of slavery in Utopia is essentially a laborer who works slightly harder than the Utopian citizens and tend to perform the dirtier jobs within Utopian society.  More writes “slaves...they’re either Utopian convicts or, much more often, condemned criminals from other countries” (82), and what is really interesting is that the slaves are mostly from other countries instead of Utopians. This reinforces the idea that Utopia has no need for crime. Also, “Both types of slaves are kept hard at work in chaingangs, though Utopians are treated worse than foreigners” (82), and interestingly enough, Utopians are treated worse than those sent from foreign countries. Wouldn’t it make more sense that the Utopians be treated better than foreigners? In the modern world, yes, but in Utopia, foreigners are held to a higher regard than Utopians because of their inability to live and function in unity the way the Utopians do.

Slaves can also be the “working-class foreigner who, rather than live in wretched poverty at home, volunteers for slavery in Utopia” (82) because again, foreigners are held to a higher standard than Utopians. The Utopians main idea is “it’s all the more deplorable if a person…..still insists on becoming a criminal— so the punishment should be all the more severe” (82), and this goes for both Utopians and foreigners.  

However, there are certain offenses and crimes that fail to warrant slavery, but instead, invoke less severe punishments. If an ill or disabled citizen denies the “officially sanctioned euthanasia” (83) offered to them, and instead decide to commit suicide, the citizen “forfeit[s] all rights to either cremation or burial, and [their] body is just thrown unceremoniously into a pond” which is quite harsh. Those who commit adultery once are sentenced to slavery and divorce because Utopians view marriage as Christians do and “married couples are only parted by death” (84) except in the case of adultery. But, the married couple can choose to forgive each other and continue to live as husband and wife. Also, as More writes, “But a second conviction means capital punishment” (85), and this seems rather harsh.

In Utopia, Thomas More creates a perfect society where crime basically ceases to exist and the major form of punishment is slavery instead of death. The death penalty, or capital punishment as they call it, is only used in extreme cases like second-time adultery. Because of their unique justice system and their innate sense of equality, the crime rate drastically diminishes to almost nothing. Slavery, however, is not as severe as we picture it to be, and Utopians make up the minority of the slave population; willing foreigners make up the majority. Instead of living like modern society and severely condemning every mistake and penal crime committed by a Utopian citizen, the government system enslaves the convicted person with the hope or freedom after a long number of years. The Utopian citizens have no desire to commit crimes because of this system and because all Utopians live the same way and own the same amount of possessions.