A Critical Analysis Of Stop Labelling People Who Commit Crimes?

With an ever-growing population and a complex diversity of people, humans have been categorizing themselves to indicate they are part of a subculture or group of people whom have set beliefs and traditions. On the other hand, there are people who categorize others by characteristics they possess or things they have done, for example “Autist, Rapist, etc.” In “Stop Labelling People Who Commit Crimes ‘criminals’ an article by Kimberley Brownlee (2012), the author questions why people label one another, causing an effect to not see past the label and judging them as if they have no depth. Brownlee received her BA in Philosophy from McGill, a MPhil in Philosophy from Cambridge and a DPhil from Oxford. Her first job was being a Fulbright Visiting

The author gives examples of social areas on earth that have moved on from such labeling, she claims that they hide the complexity of their situation. Moreover, she gives us an example of how useful these signs were to our ancestors, people who were punished in certain ways to socially indicate of their crimes. These certain attributes deemed useful to our ancestors by providing survivability strategies by indicating somebody could be in danger to them. Furthermore, she states that it is important for us to know the details of one’s story instead of blatantly assuming they are wrongdoers by heart, she says that people in prison opposed to the general population are far more likely to have witnessed domestic violence or have been abused or neglected as a child with many more reasons to follow that. To add on she mentions that not all people who break the law are necessarily bad people, sometimes it's permissible to break the law, she gives examples of women in under the Taliban in Afghanistan offending against the law if they sought education and even examples like Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela. Finally, she concludes that it is important to be more optimistic, charitable and humble towards people who have committed crimes and let them redeem