8mo ago

Why can I mentally harm someone, but if I punch them I go to jail?

If I have beef with someone, I could punch them and go to jail.

But I can also bully them, humiliate them, degrade them, psychologically annihilate them even, and that's fine, legallly. Why?

23 comments

Well, you can and it's called harassment. This likely varies on the state or country, but in my state it's illegal. As usual, if a person gets arrested for this likely depends on the mood of the officer that might have witnessed it, the length of time it's been going on and if death threats are involved.
In reality, it's just magnitudes easier to see if someone got punched in the eye.
- Oh please, show me the officer that arrests the workplace bully.
  
  If it’s in the workplace you should actually have more agency to do something through HR, but this depends on where you work…
  
  It's possible, but unlikely because there needs to be proof and it needs to be extremely serious. That is the reason I mentioned death threats, actually.
  The biggest problem is that even though harassment is clearly defined in my state, "harassment" is still likely subjective.
Its not fine at all. What you describe is a crime, but very difficult to prosecute, so usually ignored.
In South Africa, where I live, that kind of thing is a criminal offense known as crimen injuria.
From Wikipedia:
Crimen injuria is a crime under South African common law, defined as the act of "unlawfully, intentionally, and seriously impairing the dignity of another." Although difficult to precisely define, the crime is used in the prosecution of certain instances of road rage, stalking, racially offensive language, emotional or psychological abuse, and sexual offences against children.
There are also a good number of other laws that deal with child abuse, so offenders won't just get slapped with a crimen injuria charge on their criminal record and say it was just road rage when questioned.
Because its easily measurable
But I can also bully them, humiliate them, degrade them, psychologically annihilate them even, and that's fine, legallly.
It's not legal in a lot of cases
Why?
It's very hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
My follow-up thought. Would so many people not rather be hit once than ostracized forever from a group?
Isn't a punch or a slap or a headlock better any social or mental punishment? It becomes almost therapeutic for both parties.
- Mutual combat wasn't uncommon when I was a kid. When two men were sick of each other's shit, they would fist fight. They wouldn't fight dirty. When the fight was over they'd often shake hands, and be done with that conflict. The wounds would heal within a couple of weeks. Emotional wounds from harassment and betrayal sometimes never heal.
  
  Right! Thank you, this is what I'm looking for.

23 comments