This is a semantic question, but I want to get a feel for what you guys think.
Yes, you just didn’t get caught.
yes - but if there’s no enforcement then laws are rather meaningless.
technically speaking yes. but what really matters is if the enforcement agency decides whether or not it’s worth it to charge and prosecute you.
if everyone got charged for breaking any law, there is an entire generation of people who would be locked up because they never paid for winzip.
In my opinion, yes. “breaking the law” is a statement of fact that is based on what is actually quantifiable.
The fact that I was traveling over the speed limit is the only relevant factor. My intentions and consequences are irrelevant.
Intent may not be relevant for your example, but a lot of US law does have different crimes and levels of criminality that depend on intent.
For example, if I kill someone on accident, that’s usually categorized as manslaughter. If I kill someone on purpose, that might be murder. Depending on how much premeditation went into, it might be murder in the first degree, which comes with the most severe punishments.
yeah, so the “level of crime” is debatable, but if I kill someone it would not be wrong to say “I broke the law” right?
Maybe it was justifiable, but it is up to a jury to determine guilt.
Really the essence of my question is: “are ‘guilt’ and ‘breaking the law’ seen as different things.”conversely, if a murderer got acquitted, but then indisputable proof that the were the murder came out afterwards, you would say, “he broke the law”.
It depends on the law really. There is no one rule.
For example, owning lockpicks is in many places not illegal, but owning lockpicks with the intent of bypassing a lock is.
Some laws are very specific about the severity or testability of a crime where as others are not. In that case a judge has to interpret the criteria for legal tests, either from previous case law or by building new case law.
In any case, being charged for something or not is a completely separate issue. Things are no less illegal just because the state has no resource or will to execute the law.
Also, being charged does not mean you broke the law either. Nor does judgment determine it (although it’s a very strong hint) since a latter appeal could acquit you of chargers.
The determination of guilt is in the facts of what happened. And that’s the whole point of the legal system. Being charged, getting judgement, appealing. It’s all a process to determine guilt or not. It is not itself the mechanism of guilt.
The idea of a “guilty conscience” enshrines this idea in expression.
If you drive into a tree that fell across the roads in de forrest wtihout anybody around, does it make a sound?
You haven’t broken the law unless you are formally charged, cited, warned, etc.
An unenforced law is a suggestion.
