I believe that the reasons why laws are created in a society are to maintain order, protect the lives of the people living in the society and their properties, maintain justice, and many other reasons. Also in a society that's guided by law, it means there's a punishment attached to offenders of such laws. This also means that nobody is above the law, and whoever breaks the law faces the punishment regardless of their gender or status in a society.
Sadly, some top people in our society today commit all manner of crimes and go free from it; in fact, some of them plan it in such a way that a poor, innocent, ordinary man goes in for the crime they know nothing about while the offender moves about his daily activities like no man's business. That's by the way anyways, let's get into the question of the day about justifiable crimes. A crime that people can commit, and I would agree with their motives even though the act is against the law.
Now, if you commit a crime as a result of self-defense and you now kill somebody in the process, the motive is not to kill the person but rather to defend yourself, and that person ends up dying, I think this kind of crime is justifiable or more like pardonable. There's also what I can call a crime committed to prevent further crimes; this can also be justifiable. An example I can think of right now is rapists. It's very difficult to prove a rape case. Most times these rapists go scot-free, you know why? Because the victim may not even report, maybe due to the stigmatization that may follow him or her in the society, and even when they report, they can't really find evidence. In a case where the victim kills a rapist who came for an attack, it's only self-defense, and I think it is also justifiable.
Imagine a parent facing abject poverty and almost losing his children over starvation; then such a man goes into food stealing in order that his family survive. Should the law be too harsh on this person too? The motive here is survival, even though crime is crime no matter how we design it. No man will fold his hands and allow hunger to take away his precious children. Poverty has pushed a lot of people into committing this kind of crime, not actually because they are greedy but because they want to live. Sadly, this set of people still faces the same punishment as others who commit murder and other atrocities intentionally. I have heard of a case where a man was burnt alive due to food stealing for his family, it's sad.
I am not supporting evil per se; theft is theft, but these ones I pointed out above are the ones I feel that the law shouldn't be too harsh on. While they should face punishment for breaking the law, it shouldn't be the same level of punishment as others with selfish intent.
This is my response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled, It's A Justifiable Crime.
Image 1 was taken from canva