Crime and Punishment: What You Need to Know

Punishment does not have to be short and painful, as Dan Ariely points out on his TED talk speech. Whether another person deserves the pain or not, the act of causing a severe though short pain in the form of punishment, such as the one inflicted upon the old woman for her malicious behavior is not justified in any way (Ariely, 2009). Human beings have the moral obligation of watching out for each other, despite the circumstances. The old woman may have been stingy, cantankerous and useless to both the society and herself, but by opting for the easiest way out through killing her does not really make a difference, much as the perpetrator would have liked to believe. He might have had the best intentions at heart, such as using the money for a noble cause which is supporting his education, he argues that the money would have otherwise landed in the hands of chiselers, which is not completely false. 

However, as Ariely points out, when human beings look for the easiest way out of predicaments, which mostly involves hurting the subject, the act not only turns out to be painful, but it hinders the healing process since the short-term solution provided in that case only serves to address the issue from the single perspective. To develop such a moral standing, however, it is important that a person develops a relational understanding with the subject, as Carol Gilligan points out. According to her, the reason individuals are quick to judge others and take actions that do not put into consideration the interest of the subject is because they do not have a personal relationship with the subject which then clouds their moral judgment (Gilligan, 2012). If the young man, for instance, had an established relationship with the old woman, say if he were his relative, it is most likely he would have known of her positive attributes which would the have influenced him to take a more morally sound judgment in the situation. 

References 

Ariely, D. (2009). Our buggy moral code [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code 

Gilligan, C. (2012). Carol Gilligan on Women and Moral Development [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_9MozRoKE