Why is life such that it's a crime to physically hurt someone, but it's not a crime to emotionally (or psychologically) hurt someone?

[TenderFantasy]

Why does our laws (especially U. S. laws) work that way? Sorry yeah, serious question.

Like it's not a crime to lie to someone, psychologically hurt them. To disappoint or deceive them. But its a crime to become physical with someone. I feel that psychological and emotional/mental infliction can do JUST AS MUCH damage, if not more, to somebody.

Updates

+1 y

I think I just came up with some answers myself actually.
Maybe because emotions are more complicated than physical? And it’s more obvious? More tangible.
Maybe also because violence (obvious ones like physical) is more a crime than emotional/psychological for some reason.
I think it would also depend on the extent/degree/severity of it.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

It's generally too difficult to prosecute. It's immoral but it's difficult to define the rules for what actions constitute emotional or psychological harm to someone without letting every single individual define it by their own subjective criteria.

Any rule or law which leaves too much room for subjective interpretation tends to quickly be abused and corrupted. Rules have to be reasonably explicit and clear about what is and isn't acceptable or else they tend to be quickly abused.

Laws also generally come with some perverse incentives. For example, Prohibition wasn't a bad idea in terms of intentions. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous substances out there. Yet in trying to ban it, the end result was the emergence of a thriving underground economy rife with crime and speakeasies all over the place.

So I think we always have to question when we consider enacting a law as to what the actual consequences might be. Unfortunately the law isn't a very effective tool to encourage moral and civil behavior.

[TenderFantasy]

Well I know I would stop ME from doing something bad, illegal or heinous. Who wants to go to jail or prison? Haha.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I might be a bit of an oddball but the notion that something is illegal never stopped me from doing it when I was younger. For example, I smoked weed and tried shrooms in university in the US when they were so illegal and could get us sent to prison for narcotic possession. The danger of being imprisoned didn't deter me and maybe even excited me a bit back then as a thrill seeker addicted to risks.

Yet I was always very averse to any action that risks directly harming other people regardless of whether or not they broke any rules since my conscience punishes me more than anything else in those cases if I do anything wrong.

So even if it was perfectly legal to kill innocent people for no reason, I don't think I could ever do it because my conscience would punish me for the rest of my life if I did. So my conscience is my main deterrent from ever acting maliciously, not the law. I have an unhealthy lack of fear for breaking the law and rules being an adrenaline junkie and thrill seeker but I have a very active, maybe even overactive, conscience to compensate.

I think part of where I got the conscience is that I was raised as a boy with the idea that men should protect people, especially women and children but also any men who couldn't protect themselves. So it is a violation of who I want to be and who I conceive myself to be as a man if, instead of protecting someone who can't protect themselves, I bullied, exploited, or in any way harmed such a person. The law has almost no effect in the way I think about this.

[TenderFantasy]

@GuyAnswersGirls123 True. However, some people NEED the law because they don't have as good of a conscience as you do.

[robhazelnut]

Well, there has to be evidence. Word-of-mouth is not that. Perhaps advances in brain-scanning and -science could one day lend evidence to cases of psychological harm.

[TenderFantasy]

Hmm interesting, thanks.

[robhazelnut]

You're welcome. Thanks for the "follow". I don't "follow" anyone, in order to prevent inconvenience from a few creeps in my life.

[TenderFantasy]

@robhazelnut I see. No biggie.

[robhazelnut]

Acknowledged, and I appreciate your clarification.

[IslaTheWitch]

physical assault is easy to record and prove...

Everyone has different emotional limits and what hurts one person makes another only shrug...

[TenderFantasy]

"Everyone has different emotional limits and what hurts one person makes another only shrug..." Doesn't mean that something shouldn't be done about it either way..

[IslaTheWitch]

try to prove emotional assault

[TenderFantasy]

Are you talking about RECORDING someone's conversation on the phone or filming them? Yes that's already possible obviously. But not everyone is prepared when that happens a lot of the time for one thing. I think that could fall under Domestic Violence. Luckily enough.

You're right though in that emotional/psychological damage can be harder to prove, but I think there might be ways to prove it if enough evidence was presented?

Furthermore, breaking up with someone over something stupid isn't a crime, I know that, but still, it hurt me a lot when it happend. In fact it devastated me in many ways for some time because he said he wouldn't leave me and that he cared about me. He left me at a time that I really wanted a relationship and was falling for him! Guess it was my fault for putting my trust in him and his words in the first place, and trusting them. Relationships really are a gamble. They say marriage is a gamble, but I disagree. I think relationships are the real gamble, because once you've made a decision to propose or marry the person, you have SOME idea of how they really are, vs. dealing with a complete stranger, in the process of getting to know them. It's good it only lasted five months and not five years.

[IslaTheWitch]

But what you feel is your reaction. It is not standardized because we experience the world through filters created by our experiences. And everyone has different experiences and, thus, different filters.

So, you can't create a law that is based on unique experiences. I believe you are hurt. And many other people also experienced emotional pain... But it's part of being a human.

[TenderFantasy]

@islathewitch But all I am saying is that if break ups, psychological pain, would be more prosecutable, maybe people would be LESS careless with people's hearts and feelings. Do you get what I'm saying? Also, with physical harm/pain, it can also be subjective as some people can heal faster than others because maybe they are children and children heal faster than adults usually. For example, I was pushed to the ground once along time ago by a different ex, yet I took him back because I still loved him at the time. He DID get charged for Domestic Violence by a court and I was granted an immediate temporary restraining order. He got charged for that, but not all those times he was trying to cheat on me and emotionally abused me (no joke this really happend but it was a long time ago). In the end I took him back though because yeah #in love #trauma bonded #low self worth and thinking I couldn't find anyone better.

All I am saying before this gets further out of topic is that people can also have different filters of what can be "too much in severity" as far as physical harm goes. Anyway..

People have unique experiences regardless of whether it is emotional or physical.

[TenderFantasy]

I think I actually discovered a few things that DO hurt and are illegal. Not all on this list but here's some. Rape (illegal and hurts). Being USED emotionally (not illegal but still hurts). Being stolen from/robbed (illegal and hurts but probably not as bad as the others depending on the value of the item or the cost to replace it). Being Bullied --virtual (cyberbullies) or otherwise, in real-time (illegal I would hope! But yet still happens and not always reported). And ALL are part of the human experience! Anyway..

[IslaTheWitch]

The physical damage, regardless of time of healing, can be assessed. How do you feel emotionally depends on so many factors, which are independent from the case itself that it can't be put into law frames.

[RavVid]

I entirely agree with your point. The psychological damage can be a lot worse physical hurt.

A really prime example of that is a wife cheating on her husband and getting pregnant to another man, then divorcing him and getting child support. Normally if you extract money by false pretenses you can go to jail for fraud.

But generally that won't happen with paternity fraud. Yet it is worse than financial fraud. There is the money but there is love of a child you thought was yours but isn't.

[adam6402]

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. That's why.

Words are just words and YOU decide how YOU let them affect YOU. Emotional response to events varies way too much from person to person for it to be possible to set any laws around it. I could tell someone they look sexy but depending on how they interpret that, it could have 2 very different outcomes.

If I told my female friend that she looked sexy it would make her day.
If I told a gang member he looked sexy I'd probably get beaten up.

Same words, 2 very different interpretations/responses to it.

Laws are made to define the line between wrong and right. You can't define emotions.

[TenderFantasy]

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. That's why." No no no. I'm not just talking about hurtful words here you don't get it. I am talking about DOING something to HURT you (or your loved ones) such as breaking up with you with NO concern for your feelings just theirs. CHEATING on you. ABUSING you emotionally and pushing your buttons. FIRING you unfairly. Your "friend" not being there for you when you really need them, things like that.

"Laws are made to define the line between wrong and right." Right and wrong can also be subjective actually. Weirdly enough. I know there's a GENERAL or maybe even UNIVERSAL truth of what's right and wrong, but still, I hope you get what I mean..

[TenderFantasy]

Also, words can definitely hurt you. Especially if it's from someone you care about the opinion of and they are making promises and then BREAKING them, or lying to you intentionally to screw you over one way or another. Words carry with it, intent.

[adam6402]

@TenderFantasy ok I get you now, I kinda got the wrong end of the stick at first lol.

- There should definitely be a punishment or at least a fine for cheating, I'm with you there.
- Abusing you emotionally and "pushing your buttons" is just the sticks and stones thing so you can't punish people for words.
- If your friend isn't there for you, get a new friend. They're not legally bound to you like in a marriage, so therefore they don't need to be there for you.
- And I don't know where you live but where I'm from we have very strict laws around unfair job dismissals.

[FunkyMonkee]

Lying and its effects on someone, are much harder, if not impossible, to prove. Something psychologically damaging IS a crime but it still CAN be hard to prove.

[TenderFantasy]

Thanks, but how can lying be hard to prove? If you say you are going to do something and not do it (like say you told your spouse that you will not leave her and that you loved her/cared about her, but yet you DO leave her and even verbally insult her), how is that hard to prove that you lied? The proof is in the fact that you left, and if there was a tape recorder present or a video surveillance camera in the home that recorded the conversation, it would have been VERY easy to prosecute you in that sense. Not you, but someone who did this.

[FunkyMonkee]

Unless you've got a recording or video of it, it's your word against theirs.
As for them leaving (I'm thinking of this in terms of a court room), you'd have to find some way to prove they left. Just because they aren't there in court doesn't mean they left. It could be argued that YOU'RE lying about that. You might also have to prove that he was ever there in the first place.
Yes, I know who you meant.

[Joshydavid25]

Probably because it wouldn't be easy to prove, physical abuse is easier to prove given you can actually see the evidence unfortunately.. Also it's not easy to define what emotional abuse.. I mean simply saying "stop being lazy" could be emotional abuse to some people..

[TenderFantasy]

Hmm interesting, thanks.

[Joshydavid25]

Haha of course.. But Emotional abuse is definitely just as bad as physical if not worse in some ways..

[Sevenpointfive]

it definitely should be and there are cases of this happening but it doesn't happen often. but it is most certainly a crime.

however, if you want to hurt someone's feelings and bully without a more severe intention, that's something that needs to be taught.

[CozyCoffin]

It is to some extent. Defamation of character is an act that occurs when someone’s reputation and integrity are tarnished or damaged because of malicious intent by another party. There are two forms, Slander and Libel. Slander is orally dishonoring someone else, while libel is written defamation. Both forms of defamation play a critical role in personal injury lawsuits seeking to recover damages caused by such behavior.

[TenderFantasy]

But yet it does still happen and people get away with badmouthing their exes or other people they don't like all the time.

[TenderFantasy]

Also, I'm not just talking about Defamation of character but other things that the other person knows could hurt you but doesn't care. My evil, cruel ex is one great example. When he broke up with me, he was full of criticism and judgement and took me and my good qualities for granted! My stupid, fat, white ex lol. Plus, how does one tell the difference between someone tainting someone's name or reputation vs. someone just spreading the TRUTH about someone in order to prevent OTHER'S from enduring the same fate or become victims of that person as well? !

[ObscuredBeyond]

Because sometimes, it's accidental. And then you have Karens, who go out of their way to get offended. Physical injury is easier to prosecute, and God judges the heart.

[TenderFantasy]

Being physically hurt can be accidental as well.

[ObscuredBeyond]

True. But some lunatic demanding I ignore biological truth or else go to prison is them inflicting real harm on me over an imaginary slight on their part.

Meanwhile, if I hit someone with a car, even by accident, that's a whole other matter. Somewhere, a hospital bill still has to be paid.

[OddBeMe]

It can be, like uploading embarrassing videos of a kid who then kills himself, your donezo.

But psychological damage is so hard to measure that it’d be gestapo tactics.

[JayBones]

It's a good question. Very good question. Thank you. I think a few answers below answer it very well too

[loveslongnails]

If lying were a crime, everybody would be in jail.

[TenderFantasy]

I honestly belive there are honest people out there. Can't accurately count that, but still. And I'm not referring to people who have white lies or lies that are no big deal, but people who try to fool others or scam them, commit fraud. I actually think that's illegal actually haha.

[andreasderjuengere]

It's because parents fail to do their job.

[jahaims]

There are laws about both

[TenderFantasy]

Where?

[Jennz6]

A law like that would help