Crime under anarchy.

[IndependentCitizen]

I think this is something that concerns me about Anarchism, which I feel I closely associate with. But when I talk about crime, I'm not talking about small things like burglary, as that's often related to capitalism depriving people of material goods. What I mean is, is things like rape; murder and etc. Rape is often about control, humiliation and anger rather than sexual desire, so without a police force, or any form of law enforcement, how would you propose an end to such things?

And I'm sure there won't be, but I'll state anyway, I will report anyone who comes along and posts "anarchism is dumb" etc etc.

[OhYesIdid]

I also relate to anarchism, and my understanding is that communities would come together to decide how best to deal with such situations, should they arise. I don't suppose psychiatric wards will be closed following the revolution, right?

[Tim Cornelis]

Firstly, it needs to be stressed that anarchism is opposed to the imposition of social hierarchy. Rape and murder is the act of imposing one's will on another by means of physical coercion. It is thus not against anarchist principles to prevent such crimes.

Secondly, police never prevent rape or murder.

Thirdly, anarchism has some form of community-security patrol, which is not "police" under another banner since police, by its very definition, is a government department.

[thriller]

I believe rape is 50/50 in that it is about sexual desire as much as it is about control. As far as murder goes, it is, usually, a crime of passion. I don't think anarchism, or even any system, can stop murder. Police forces and legal systems rarely prevent or even curtail murder, they merely "find" those who committed the acts of violence. I'm not too well versed on anarchist theory, but if it's anything like communist theory, it would not be utopian, merely a restructuring of society. So therefore, people in there own communities, I assume, would deal with issues of rape and/or murder.

[IndependentCitizen]

I think stop was the wrong word, deterrent then. But how would a community route out those who wish to hurt others? Any one know any decent anarchist literature on this? Obviously it's speculation how things would work out, but I fancy reading some anarchist literature.