Hammurabi was a powerful leader of the Babylonian Empire in the Fertile Crescent. He did many things to make his empire strong. One of his greatest contributions to his empire (and the world) was the creation of the first written code of laws. Hammurabi's Code stresses punishments that fit the crimes- "an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth." In other words, if you stole something, you paid the price of whatever you stole; if you murdered someone, you would be put to death. However, his laws were not equal between different social classes and between men and women. If you were a rich person stealing from a poor person, you might only have to pay the poor person half the cost of whatever it was that you stole, but if you were a poor person stealing from a rich person, your hand could be chopped off, or you could even be put to death.
Was it fair that Hammurabi had different punishments for different social classes and for men and women? Why or why not?
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I think it wasnt fair for Hammurabi to make different punishments for different genders or different social classes, because i think everyone should be equal. They should all have equal rights. for example, if a girl commits murder and she gets hanged.. then a guy should too if he does the same thing. We are all people and we all have our rights.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with panda_lover. Panda_lover said that everybody should be treated equal, and Hammurabi said that punishments were based on where you stand in social class listings. It shouldent have to matter what gender or social class you are. If you do something wrong,no matter what kind of person you are, you should be punished the right way depending on how bad it was. Back then, I think people didnt realize people of lower class had feelings too.
ReplyDeleteit is kind of fair if you are of equal classes . but if you are rich and poor classes there were complete differences. i dont agree because theres a different punishment for classes and genders. there should have been an equal punishment law for classes and gendors. im not saying if someone killed someone they should get off easy i think they should be put in a jail or put to death. Also though if a poor person commited a crime they would be killed even if they stole something.
ReplyDeleteI agree completly with panda_lover.hammurabi's code was not fair to either gender or social class. So what if your rich, so what if your poor, we should all be equal in everything we commit.it is not fair that rich people get the half way out.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that rich people still get off easier in today's society?
ReplyDeleteI agree with icecoffe2, that everyone should be treated equally. It isn't fair to anyone if they did the same bad thing as another person or social class and they get a worse punishment than the other person or social class.
ReplyDeleteI think that rich people get off easier today. If you were really rich and you got into trouble, you would have lawers that could help you get out of trouble. Plus the fact that you would be very popular with friends that would want to stand up for you if you were in trouble.As if you were poor, you might not have many friends and have the ability to rent some cheap lawer off the streets. A judge would not think much of you, and off to jail you go just for being poor.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hammurabi had a good idea in law like an eye for an eye other than i think that a rich person should be punished more for stealing from a poor person but i think a poor person should be punished less for stealing from a rich person.
ReplyDeleteI think that rich people do get off easy
ReplyDeletei totally agree with panda_lover. even though i agree with an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth. it is soo wrong to have different punishments 4 woman and the lower class it doesn't matter wht race u r or wht gender u r just becuse ur rich doesn't necessarily make u better
ReplyDeleteResponding to mrs. bartos reply, i still do think rich people get off easier because they have a ton of money that can be used to bail themselves right out, while the poor people have to rot in jail till they make enough money. Rich people also do tend to have popularity in our lives, like how they have fancy houses and those really cool cars that we dream of having.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hammurbai was very unfair about how he treated people that were poor or didn't have as much money as the rich. Everyone is created equal and should serve the same penalty as any other person should, rich or poor. It is the same law they are breaking and should be served the same punishment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with name13 because they were poor and didn't have as much money as the rich. If men and women break the law they should have the same punishment; same as rich and poor.
ReplyDeleteHammurbai was wrong to make that discison. And i think it wasnt fair at all because the poor people dont have as much to offer as the rich do, so doesnt mean you take their life if they stole something from someone else...
ReplyDeletei think that it was unfair becasue a rich person has the money and power to ward of punisment but if you where to chop a poor persons hand off you woulkd be disabling him and thats just not humane thats what i think peace
ReplyDeleteas i read the response from mrs.bartos i think yes they do get off easier because they have the money and the resorses to avoid jail here is and example:
ReplyDeleteyou,opra and guy in a very old broken down truck are all at a red light and you diside to have a street race. so evreyone starts when the light goes green and goes 100 mph and all of you get pulled over. so you all got to court and you all have to pay the same price for the speeding ticet.
now you tell me fellow blogers who got the worst end of the stick who got hit the hardest opra winfry a woman who is rich, you who is about middelclass(i hope) or the man in the beat up truck whos truck is the only thing he has other than his cloths please post your anser peace
i agree with evryone here because equals are equals rich and poor are agenst not with
ReplyDeletepeace
I agree with Panda_lover and icecoffee and the other ppl who agreed wit them about Hammurabi law cuz basically what they said was ppl shudnt get consequences depending on their class or gender. To me, Hammurabi's laws were quite flawful:] I can understand that he was just trying to keep crime on an even keel but umm his tactics aint fair. Like how you gona cut somebody hand off just for stealing probably an apple...verses making a "rich" person pay half of the cost of what ever they stole. Thatz not a fair...am i right or am i right? Hahahaa:} so the bottom line is Hammurabi had the right idea to make some laws to try to make a person decent, but he was wrong not to inforce them equaly just becuase u might not be popular in society....thats all i got to say..DuCezz;)
ReplyDeletei believe the Hammurbai code was wrong because if a poor person did something to a rich person there would be more of a punishment for them than if a rich person did something to a poor person. i also go for the Hammurbai code because you should be punished if you break any law.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it was fair that Hammurabi had different punishments for different social classes and for men and women. I believe that everyone should be equally treated. I think that hamurabis laws should have been equal to women and men and also the different social classes.Also ,What would happened if a richer person killed a poorer person??? because you cant be half hung???
ReplyDeleteWee-gee,
ReplyDeleteNice example. I agree- in your scenario, even though the punishments are technically equal, the lower class person is still getting the short end of the stick, because the fine he/she will have to pay could be the difference between eating for a couple of days or not eating. Whereas, for Oprah, the fine is just a drop in the bucket.
Twilight18eclipse95,
ReplyDeleteIf a richer person killed a poor person, they may have only had to pay a fine to the family.
Hammurabi shouldn't have made the consequences different for different social classes be3cause that really gave the lower classes a disadvantage when it came to punishments for the men and women.
ReplyDeleteI agree with coltz557 because they have the same reasoning as me.People shouldn't be punished based their social group.
ReplyDeletei agree with coltz557 because its not fair that the rich people got off the hook easy. in fact the same thing happens today everywhere
ReplyDeletei think the rich get off easy.. but up to a cirtian extent.. such as they can buy a very well-trained lawyer to defend them.They would get a punishment but it wouldnt be as bad as if a poor person went to court and only had one of the state lawyers that stink... but, then again on the other side the judge cant let the rich person totally off because people would begin to notice..money seems to be the main goal for peopl with jobs these days.
ReplyDeleteBut its the same as hammuriabi because hammuriabi didnt treat the rich/wealthy as bad as the poor because the rich could work and contribute to him. but the poor were worthless basically.
i don't agree with hummurabi's rules. I think that they are not fair.All people no matter how they live should live by the same rules.Richer people get it better than poor people do because poor people they have to work for what they want and rich people have it handed down to them.I also think that it is so crucial that if poor people try to steal their life is taken away from them or their hand?
ReplyDeletecloaked schemer,
ReplyDeleteyou need to expand more on your comments to receive full credit. Give details and examples.
i think tht rich ppls punishments shud be more harsh because, first off if they rich why do they gotta steal from a poor person? poor ppl gotta workk hard juss too juss stay below average..rich ppl can juss walk through life
ReplyDeletebritt-3 do they get their hand or their life taken if they steal? because if a rich person steals i think they just pay a fine. i dont remember wich one.
ReplyDeleteit isnt fair that richer people get off easy. like our government is paid alot and are given better things like health plans that are not what alot of americans have. back then it was probably the same . there would be crimes that richer people could pay to get out of. but if one low class citizen commited a crime they may have killed just for stealing food
ReplyDeleteI thick itr wasn't fair for hammurabi to decide differnt punisment for the seperate classes and gender.Because if two people did the same bad thing but were in seprate classes the higher class would receive less of a punishment.While the lower class did much harded work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with wee-gee because since the rich can afford the resorses to afford jail their let off easy. But since the poor is so poor they receve even harder punishment.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hammurabi was wrong to sentence the poor to death for stealing from a rich person and then have the rich people have a less worse punishment for stealing something from a poor person. I think that it should be the other way around because the poor are more needy and the rich have no reason to steal from the poor. I also agree with bigdaddyb123, but i also disagree because the rich don't have it all. They should all actually be treated as equal as they could.
ReplyDeletei think that hammurabi's cose was not fair because everyone sould be treated equal no matter how much money you have. just because someone is rich does not mean they should have any speacial treatment
ReplyDeletei agree with pinkorange232 because it is wrong to sentence poor people to death and rich people just get away with a fine or something like that. i also agree with pinkoranges other point, that rich person wouldnt even need to steal from a poor person in doing so they should have a bigger punishmen.
ReplyDeletepinkorange232,
ReplyDeletei agree with you. Why should a poor person be charged with life sometimes if they were stealing! I think the rich people should have been charged with life,because like you said why do they need to steal if they are rich.
bigdaddyb123,
i agree with you in how rich people pretty much walk through life if they are getting the money from popularity or like sports they get like a couple million dollars a year.also people do work to make there money, like engineers or scientists , they make alot of money but they work hard to make technology better and find cures.i dont believe hamurabis laws were right to punish the lower class people harsher.
i agree with cloaked schemer completely. the different punishments only made the under classes a disadvantage in anything they do. it also gave the upper classes the satisfaction of doing a crime and not really getting a full punishment. it was also wrong for the different punishment between men and women because if the man is abusive the woman couldn't do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteNo i think it was completly unfair what Hammurabi did. It doesnt mater what kind of money people come from everyone should have equal punishments for the same crimes. and i think that it was also wrong for Hammurabi to give different punishments between men and women because men and women should be treated as equals.
ReplyDeletei also agree with pinkorange232, it should be the other way around! rich people get what they want because they have money, poor people shouldnt get that kind of punishment! Rich people dont need to go around stealing from one another, they should either pay back all of the money or get their hand cut off so its equal on each part.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it was fair that there were different punisments for men and women and for different social classes because if a rich person stole from a poor person they should get the same punishment if a poor person were to steal from a rich person because it is the same crime.
ReplyDeleteI agree with other people comments that say that the punishments weren't fair and people should have the same punishment.
ReplyDeletei think it is not fair that Hammurabi had different punishments for different social classes because everyone should be treated eaqual no matter what their size,age,or social class was, and if they were a man or a woman.
ReplyDeletei agree with james1995 because if someone makes a crime no matter how much money they have they should have the same punishment
ReplyDeleteI partly agreee and disagree with twizzler 5 because that perosn said that people were not treated equally which was true but if people hadnt commited the crimes in the first place then they wouldnt have to deal with the punishment that they recieved so if they hadnt done anything in the first place they wouldnt have anythong to complian about
ReplyDeleteI believe that hammurabis code was ufair because he treated different people uneqaully i dont under stand why it matters how much money you had or what gender you were each person should be punished based on the facts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with James1995 but, even though Hammurabi's laws might not have been favored by everybody, they were taking a step in the right direction because people need laws and rules of behavior to have a civlized society. Back then women weren't looked at as an equal so at the time, these laws were not viewed as unequal.
ReplyDeletei totally agree with james1995 and alot of other people that thought it was unfair. Hammurabi should have made it equal for everyone no matter who they were. since the upper classes didnt get such a big punishmen as the rest of the people the upper classes could end up taking advantage of them. it wasnt fair for the under classes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the answer that Twilight18Eclipse95 gave because that just explains the unequality between social classes. I do not think it is fair that Hammurabi made the punishments unequal between social classes because everyone is human even if you are a man or a woman, and even if you had a different social class back then.
ReplyDeleteThe comment the icecoffe2 had showed that everone does have feelings and should all be treated as equals even if they are a different gender or a king, landowner, or peseant.
ReplyDeletei donot belive that hamurabi was right to punish ppl in diffrent ways thats like discrimination in this country and thats not right
ReplyDeletei think that celebrities get off easier with certain punishments not just the rich. the whole chris brown and rhianna thing wood be an example
ReplyDeleteI agree that punishments should fit the crimes- "an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.". I do not agree that there should be different punishments for different social classes or men vs. women. Everyone should be treated the same no matter what class of people they are.
ReplyDeleteI like Wee-Gee's example because I did not think about it like that until read Wee-Gee's post. Even though the punishment would be equal for all it would be harder for the lower class.
ReplyDeletei defiantly think that rich people get off easier cuz if they do somthing wrong the ycan just get a really good lawyer but if ur poor u may not even be able to afford a lawyer
ReplyDeletei think that it isnt fair that different social classes would have diff punishments because we are all people and all have feelings and thats how it should always be because with hammirabbi's codes and eye for an eye would make the whole world go blind.
ReplyDeleteI agree with robinflyfree. Chris brown is a great example of how the rich get off easier then the less fortunate. He should have gotten a worse punishment then what he got.
ReplyDeletei actualy think that richer ppl should be punished more becase they get away mth so much by buying ppl
ReplyDeletei agreee with panda lover everyboduy should have equal rights including women men rich and poor.
ReplyDeletei agree with Icecoffe2, It shouldent have to matter what gender or social class you are. its so true. gender and social classes shouldnt matter, its the same crime just a different person making it. rich people can still get away with more things these days i think and thats not right.
ReplyDeletehammurabi wasnt totally unfair. i agree with fif when they said that punishments should fit the crimes. hammurabi was fair there just not when it comes to genders and socail classes. its like how we have/had raceism. it shouldnt matter who you are or how much money you have or what color your skin is. people are people
ReplyDeleteI agree with fif but i also think that all men and women are created i dont think people should be byass towards your own race or social class. and its not fair if 2 ppl do the same crime and there is 2 diffent outcomes... Today if that happens some can take it up with the supreme court and they can judge if its unconstitutional or not..
ReplyDeletei also along with everyone else thing wee gees example was a good thing to think about. i didnt think of it like that either. Hammurabi should have thought about the lower class people too because it wasnt fair for them at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with panda_lover because I also think that all human beings should have the same rights, regardless of their social class, gender, or even their ethnicity. We can all think of recent examples where the rich guy is able to buy his freedom by getting a good lawyer. This really doesn't seem equal or fair.
ReplyDeletei agree with mostly everyone that has blogged. The Hammurabis code was unfair for all the lower class. the upper class got away with alot more then the lower class. Hammurabi should have made the laws equal for everyone
ReplyDeletei believe that homorabis code was kind of unfare because it increased the punishment upon someone of lower class of the victim
ReplyDeleteI do not believe it was fair because unequal punishment makes things worse on lower social classes which usually have little to no money and have to steal sometimes and if they're caught they could lose a hand or be put to death but if a rich person is caught stealing then they just pay a fine and it's over with but the rich does not need to steal
ReplyDeleteI think that the rich people dont get off in todays society. I think it is more equal now then when they just came out with laws. It makes more sense now by how harsh a crime is, is what the consequence is. Like when anybody, just not the rich or the poor, steals from a store or kills someone, there is a specific punnishment. For example, if some guy just goes to a bank and decides to steal $40,000 it is different than some person going into a thrift shop and stealing a card deck. Now a days, the punnishments are for what people need and not how much money they have. Than like before, if you were in a specific class you would be treated differently.
ReplyDeleteI think it was I unfair that Hammurabi made the unequal rights for people. everyone is the same whether your race or color it shouldn't matter we all should be treated how you would like to be treated.
ReplyDeleteI agree with noodles14 because everyone is mostly on topic and I can understand where your coming from. Hammurabi should of made equal rights because it's not fair for the poor to be treated more with punishment than the rich.
ReplyDeletei think hammurabi's code was extreamly unfair. i say this because it should not matter how much money you have or were you come from but what kind of person you are. even in todays society celebrits get off esay than others. this is not fair to the lower class citizens. so all in all its not fair because its still the same crime
ReplyDeleteI agree with twilight18Eclipse95 if a rich person stole from or killed a poor person they just might have to pay a small fine. well thats mean, cruel and just stupid. Not to mention that hammurabi said eye for an eye but does that apply here. Personally to me it sounds more like a eye for an arm
ReplyDeleteok i agree with brockportkid18 for two reasons. 1) they were the closest person to my blog and
ReplyDelete2) you are proving a point when you say eye for an eye. the punishment for different social classes was unfair and kinda cruel.
my overall opinion of hammurabi and the way he ran the whole thing wanst right case a poor person steeling could get a hand cut off and a rich person would have to pay a little fine for that
ReplyDeletei agree with specter1995 that the punishments should be equal between social classes but the people in those days didnt understand that people should be treated equal because we are all the same even if the skin color or behaviors are different
ReplyDeleteit wasnt fair that he had different punishments for different people . because , everyone should be treated equally . no matter what the circumstances was . it should be an "eye for an eye" , for everyone ; not based on social class , or gender .
ReplyDeletefor diffrent punishments for diffrent genders was and is still wrong. Even for diffrent socal classes. I mean what if that poor person didn't have that thing he stole but needed it to save his kids. Punisments should be equeal for everyone.
ReplyDelete