Crime Controlled by those with moral imperatives

• Whats a moral imperative?

  An overriding sense of what is right. This continues to be upheld even if it's against the law.
• What are the examples of crimes committed by moral imperatives?

  1. Clive Ponting (Broke the law by revealing secret information to an MP regarding the sinking of a ship in the Falkland War - argued as public interest)
  2. Kay Gilderdale (Broke the law by assisting her daughter commit suicide as she was terminally ill for 17 years)
  3. Rosie James and Rachel Wenham (Committed criminal damage to a nuclear submarine, preventing a war crime)
  4. Alan Blythe (Grew cannabis to cure his wifes pain)
• Why was the suffragettes a crime committed by moral imperative?

  They campaigned for woman's right to vote. They deliberately broke the law with their campaign of direct action and civil disobedience. They set fire to post boxes, smashed windows and attacked portraits. They refused to pay the fines for their crimes.

  In 1913, Emily Davidson died by throwing herself under a race horse.
• What was the cat and mouse act?


  So the suffragettes on hunger strike could be released from prison and recalled when they recovered.
• What was the stansted 15?

  15 protesters broke into the airport and chained themselves together around a plane that was chartered by the Home Office to deport 60 people. They were convicted of endangering aerodrome that resulted in life sentences. This was quashed by the court of appeal in 2021.

  The flight was later discovered to have been people who were victims of human trafficking.
• What did Durkhein argue about crimes committed by moral imperatives?

  They must occur for new social values to emerge, which causes positive change in a stagnant society.

  eg. after the suffragettes, women were given gender equality.