A few remarks on a matter of justice in selected criminal stories
Justice is considered one of the most basic human rights and the need of it is considered one of essential factors of individual’s personal and social life. Although critics accuse criminal stories of propagating crime and making it attractive, they de facto satisfy the audience’s need of justice, the need that is not always satisfied in everyday life. Classic detective stories always end with villains’ defeat. One committing a crime must always be punished. Justice is not done to the whole society, as it happens in real life, but to a sufferer first and foremost. The penalty doesn’t have to be administered. Sometimes a criminal is penalized under common law, especially if he or she can’t be brought before court due to loopholes. The judgment and the sentence are in principle determined by “the natural moral law” because the evil is wicked by nature and not only when ruled by the court. An average audience of criminal stories is able to accept different excuses for punishable offences committed by a criminal, e.g. abusive upbringing or insanity, as long as they concern an already punished criminal. Punished adequately that is, basically, dead.