Category: Stealing

Decisions between what is right and wrong are presented to all of us in some shape or form. For example, an ethical dilemma is a decision in which we challenge our own beliefs to decide between right and wrong. Ethical dilemmas only occur when two or more ethical standards apply but conflict with each other. These moral dilemmas appear when a difficult problem or situation may not be solved in a way that will satisfy all parties involved. Usually, one action violates ethical wrongdoing, while the other step is morally right. Stealing to feed your family is a classic example. While stealing is ethically wrong, in some cases, such as those that involve saving a life, it is the morally correct thing to do.

First, as stated in the thesis statement, stealing is morally wrong. However, life is precious and a gift from God. Once an individual dies, he will never come to existence for a second time. An individual lives once. The society within which we live is also mandated to protect human lives. Besides, the main reason for a government is to protect its citizens from attack, resolve conflicts, and protect their properties. The law prohibits stealing and vandalizing properties. However, a crucial question arises; does the law prohibit stealing in any given situation?

Define the ethical dilemma

Faced by a situation where a man is starving, and a nearby bakery is closed, I would break it, steal a loaf of bread to feed the man. Though the law prohibits stealing, it does not consider such a situation when an individual experiences an ethical dilemma. From my position, I feel that at times, it is essential to discard the law since it cannot anticipate every eventuality which may arise in our day occurrences.

The bakery owner has a right to own properties. He is also entitled to protection from the local authority. A starving resident has the right to life and security too. The local authority is, therefore, mandated to enforce the law and resolve conflicts between the citizens. While deciding between saving life and breaking the bakery, I will evaluate the harm linked to my action. I feel that it is more harmful to let a starving man die than stealing a bread.

Influences on Decision Making

Stealing one bread in the bakery would have an insignificant impact on the level of profit. The owner may not even realize the loss of his balance sheet. The cost of producing the bread could also be significantly low since the baker commercially produces goods on a large scale. The act is evil though a necessary evil. In connection with the same observation, people believe that stealing is highly unethical. I criticize this statement since I feel it is even more immoral to witness a hungry man die by refusing to steal (Amidon, Joel, et al., 28).

Ethical standards

Ethical standards can be defined as guidelines that are followed to promote values such as ethical behavior, trust, kindness, and fairness. Such instructions are enforceable and subject to interpretation. The ethical standards that help to promote harmony is a society.

Kindness, honesty, loyalty, and law-abiding are notable examples of ethical behaviors in a society. The act of being kind should not be limited to wealth. People with a lot of wealth may not be in a position to help others. Kindness and fairness may conflict with the principle of the law-abiding. Since I have no money, this does not imply I will have to follow the law and ignore the value of life strictly.

Laws Broken and Repercussions

My decision to break the bakery and steal to save a life is also based on the following questions; what is vital between life and death? What is vital between life and property? Notably, the answer to these questions is simply LIFE. Unlike properties, lives can never be replaced. As a member of society, it is essential to save a life by breaking societal ethics than observing another member of a community losing the precious gift (Shavell, Steven, 34). Due to the lack of an alternative to save the starving man from death, stealing is a morally right decision.

Responsibility

The ethical dilemma in question is a matter of life and death. At my position, life is more precious, and I would be ready to face judgment from others and positively accept the responsibilities for error. Stealing is illegal and would result in strict measures by the local authority. However, when an individual dies while I am in a position to save, I will feel guilty.

Ethical Dilemma Evaluation

A moral dilemma dictates the choice of one action and foregoing the alternative. Based on the ethical dilemma, it is morally right to save life compared to letting the individual die. Stealing is universally immoral but a necessary evil when it comes to a situation of life and death. The choice of stealing a loaf of bread is less expensive than losing someone’s life. To justify the decision, suppose you were in an area under attack. You happen to find the attacker with his gun at hand, almost shooting innocent people. Would you stop shoot him too to save others, or would you let him proceed and kill others? You would kill him to save others. Killing is unethical. However, killing the attacker would save more lives and, therefore, a necessary evil.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development have three distinctive phases, which include re-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. The pre-conventional stage postulates that children’s morality is controlled externally. Children believe that authority is ever right. For instance, they will not question their parents and teachers since they have not understood right and wrong. In the conventional stage, the child’s sense of morality is strictly grounded in societal and personal relationships. At this point, individuals are less interested in the welfare of others. In the conventional stage, individuals are expected to obey the rules. The laws are believed to be equal across all individuals. Notably, this implies that all individuals are expected to do what they are supposed to do. Lastly, in the post-conventional stage, an individual’s morality is guided by more abstract values. The laws are viewed to be less rigid but more social contracts.

Debatably, guided by the Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, at times, it is essential to break the law since they should not remain rigid and fixed. The universal ethical principle orientation postulates that rules are only valid if they are based on justice.

Morality vs. Law Argument

There are five approaches to the argument for law and morality, which include; utilitarian, virtue, common good, rights, and justice. The utilitarian approach requires an individual to undertake a decision which is least harmful or most good. The right approach, on the other hand, postulates that the best choice is one that respects the moral rights of the involved. Fairness requires that everyone is treated equally, and we should be in a position to defend our decision. The common good approach indicates that we should always do what is best. Lastly, the virtue approach is based on the fact that our actions should always be consistent with given virtues.

The model is clear for decision making in a moral dilemma. First, I am expected to make a less harmful decision. Saving is less dangerous than stealing. I am also likely to make the right decision, which at my position, stealing to save a life is the best.

In summary, life is precious, and we should use all means to save it. We only live once, and therefore, it would be unfair to leave an individual to die because they are poor. Material wealth should not limit our kindness; we can steal to save others, as indicated by the approach of the common good.

Opinion and personal perspective

Arguably, it is also important to base the argument on an individual’s point of view. Faced by the same situation, would I steal to save my life, or would I wait to die? Regardless of how holy I am, I would save my life. Debatably, this implies the same situation when a brother or a sister is suffering. The consequence of breaking the bakery would be imprisonment, the local authority may authorize me to pay the repair cost, or I would be entitled to work for a given period without a salary. Such decisions would be reasonably cheaper than losing a soul (Rank &Sarah, 27).

Conclusion

In life, we should expect to face a moral dilemma where the decision we make is subject to critics. Some people will completely disagree with my decision, but I feel it is the best. At a point of life and death, make decisions that save life since life is a gift from God, which, when destroyed, it can never be repaired.

Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of action. Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action, without ethics our actions would be aimless. A basic rule is do not steal, something children learn from early on in their lives.

People often use words like good or bad defining what they know as ethical behaviour. Different views of stealing and attitudes to it in the context of an ethical and moral analysis can be illustrated by what results we get depending on whether the analysis is based on consequential or non-consequential.

John Stuart Mill was a philosopher who is considered to be an influential philosopher. Stuart Mill advocated utilitarianism. In this interpretation, stealing is considered wrong because it harms the victim.

A Utilitarianism approach; an action is right in so far as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct. It is being said that stealing is wrong because it causes losses to people.

The reasons for not stealing based on consequentialism include the consequence of harming other people by taking their property from them. (Thiroux Jacques). However, not only a victim of thefts who are harmed. Stealing as practice may affect entire areas and communities, the younger generation can get involved in stealing. Stealing may have pronounced negative consequences for a person who steals. Stealing can be justified in terms of short-term consequences as an easy way of getting something without using extra money (Hinman).

Other challenging aspects involve arguments for stealing that refer to the corrupt economic system and the interpretation of consequences as good or bad.

A non-consequential Approach; a theory according to which the rightness or wrongness of an act. A non-consequentialist approach holds a different view stating that morality should be rooted in ethical principles to be followed.

These ethical and moral principles were developed by Kant. For example, stealing in the Robin Hood era, with the purpose of taking from the wealthy and giving to the poor is bad because the goals cannot justify dishonest acts of stealing that are inherently wrong. Negative consequences for a person who steals in the form of risks of being punished that evolve from the consequential approach are backed up by the non-consequential stance that points out such negative effects for a thief as feeling guilty of thefts, losing self-respect. All these aspects are related to the inherent principles of personality and are no less important than easily recognized, material, so to say, constituents of stealing.

Now when moral values are often degraded, with a huge number of people who take up a relativistic orientation lending itself to ambiguous stance the non-consequential approach may seem to lose some of its relevance.

However, in situations that cannot be consistently interpreted as good or bad using the consequential approach it is the non-consequential one that resolves the paradox and helps people choose the moral way of addressing controversial issues. An example of an issue is copying that is seen as stealing copyright materials. A consequential approach, the outcomes can be positive, with lots of people getting access to music and other sites they enjoy. At the same time, such practices harm individuals’ intellectual property rights, which is bad. The problem can be resolved by applying the non-consequential principles that prevent copying as an action amounting in its moral characteristics to stealing.

Stealing is condemned on the basis of both consequential and non-consequential views, although these analyse it using different principles.

References

1. Fieser, James. Moral Philosophy through the Ages. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2019. Print.
2. Hinman, Lawrence M. Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory. 5 ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing; 2019. Print.
3. Thiroux, Jacques P. and Krasemann Keith W. Ethics: Theory and Practice. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2019. Print.

Introduction

The problem of employee theft will discuss here. This assignment will explore employee theft based on the hospitality industry. It is the thieving of time, money and goods by the people who work for the organisation such as employees. This assignment will explore the difficult of employee theft through diverse departments, the incentive overdue employee theft in hotels and kinds of employee theft. This assignment will also explore the way to stop employee theft adopt by international hotels and recommendations to manage employee theft effectively. The hospitality industries are by environment occupied with possible prospects for steals to take from guest and house comparable (Brock Baskin, McKee, & Buckley, 2017). The difficulties of employee stealing in the hotel sector are a venerable difficult. The hotel companies have lost billions of dollars every time due to worker stealing (Kennedy, Shedding light on employee theft’s dark figure: A typology of employee theft nonreporting rationalizations, 2016). The hotel companies have considered employee theft significantly. By the worker stealing, employer’s assets are use or misuse without permission.

The problem of Employee Theft in the Hotel Industry

In the hotel sectors, worker stealing is considered a serious problem. It is the stealing of time, money and goods by the people who are work for the organisation. The employee theft can be considered as the usage, stealing or misappropriation of the possessions of the owners’ lack of permission (Chen & King, 2018). The term assets of the employers are significant due to it indicates employee theft which is associated more than just cash. In the hotel industry, there are much more important things than cash and that the employees can steal from the organisation (Wells, 2017). In the hotel sector, the difficulties of the worker are considered as the age-old problem. The hotels’ companies have faced to misplace billions of dollars every year due to worker stealing. The stealing in hotel companies can take many procedures and uniqueness stealing to credit card deception of guest and merchandise assets (Goh, Muskat, & Tan, 2017). In the hotel sector, no organisations hire an employee thinking that the employee is someday going to steal. Trust is the foundation of all effective associations. As the business frontrunner, the hotel companies can invest in the trust and people to ensure a worthy job and the preponderance of workforces can feel assured to foremost business in their influences and occupied for good of the organisation (Tuna, Ghazzawi, Yesiltas, Tuna, & Arslan, 2016). In recent days, worker stealing is on the increase and it turns the range from theft workplace provisions and stuffing time to obligating deception. Sometimes, employee stealing can happen out of prospect which is one of the major faults for business organisations to create placing one individual in responsibility of the funding.

The problem of Employee Theft across Different Departments

Employee stealing is one of the most expensive liabilities which have faced by the organisation. Asset embezzlement is the comprehensive term which defines a vast amount of worker deception arrangements. Theft of the assets of the organisation by an employee is the problem across different departments (Peters & Maniam, 2016). In the different departments, employees steal invention from a corporation whichever by actually attractive and it delivering it in particular other method. One of the major experiments of investing, perceiving and stopping employee deception is the fact which needs different methods for discovery. In the hospitality industry, the organisation has faced payment fraud due to making false customer interpretations to produce untruthful disbursements (Goh & Kong, 2016). Payments fraud includes self-authorising expenses, altering payee particulars on payables and checks and combining with others to procedure false entitlements for payments and benefits (Mars, 2019). The hospitality industry has faced the problem of health insurance fraud. In the hotels, employees are colluding and comprise with health care providers to deceive insurance section by succumbing inflated or false receipts. The hotel companies have faced vendor fraud by the vendor management department. Vendor deception can be dedicated by the workforces performing in conspiracy with the vendor. The vendor management department of the organisation has faced these types of fraud (Johnson, 2017). The accounting department of the hospitality industry has faced employee theft. The employees in the hospitality industry who manipulates accounts departments of the organisation to conspiracy stealing or uses the interpretations of the organisation receivable and payable to steal obligates account deception. Workers associate these categories of deception are usually in the position that has admission to the interpretations of the organisation with misunderstanding.

he motivation behind Employee Theft in Hotels

The motivation overdue worker stealing encompasses a mixture of worker and employer reasons. In the hospitality industry, employer-led reasons are problems such as administration philosophy, HR strategies, poor alignment packages etc. Employee-led explanations originate from derives from workforces such as unethical values, monetary difficulties and thrill-seeking performance. The employer-led motive is uncertain strategies about worker stealing. It is significant due to workforces are uncertain about the constitute stealing in the workroom. Additionally, employees can be committing theft unknowingly. In the hotel sector, worker stealing is the most common and there are insufficient strategies and exercise of the workforces cause worker stealing (Kennedy, 2016). In the hotel sector, around are almost 25% of the hospitality scholars and 33% of the hospitality personnel explored that they would receipts enclosures and unwanted food home-based from their organisation throughout occupation. The most important inspiration for worker stealing in the hotel sectors comes from deprived communication from administration and the worker may consider as stealing and they do not deliberate that they have done everything erroneous when they associate in the employee theft (Chen & King, 2018). On the other hand, organisational culture gives high value to the proper motivation, individual contribution and fair behaviour to all the employees which are the key progress in progressing elsewhere pessimistic and undesirable method that the management must be there to continuously and continually protector and look out over the movements of their workforces (Goh & Kong, 2016). Additionally, the unprincipled performance of other employee and colleagues can inspire worker stealing in hotel companies.

Types of Employee Theft in Hotels

In the hospitality industry, worker stealing can be considered as the unlawful control, enchanting and transmission of cash or possessions of the official work administration that committed by an worker throughout work-related movement. There are many kinds of operative stealing in hotel organisations such as inventory, elimination of cash, improper use of employee discounts, equipment, unauthorised coupons, allowed usage of amenities, deceitful repayments etc (Goh, Muskat, & Tan, 2017). Employee stealing has a pattern of to be tangible.

In the hotel industry, worker stealing can be intentional and unintentional. Some employees are intentional abusers. These types of employees actively want a way to manipulate the system in their favour (Goh, Muskat, & Tan, 2017). The intentional employee theft can occur due to taking longer or more frequent breaks than allowed, come in late and leave early, work on personal activities during business hours and purposefully record inaccurate timesheet etc. On the other hand, in the hotel industry, there are some disengaged employees with poor attitudes can have unintentional employee theft which is impacted on productivity (Mars, 2019). The disengaged employee may be dealing with the personal problem and they can be suffering from conflicts in the workplace.

On the other hand, there are mainly two kinds of stealing in the hospitality sector such as tangible and intangible. The tangible employee theft is everything which can be taken from the hotel companies by employees such as raw materials, cash, office supplies, office furniture, laptops and other machines etc (Goh, Muskat, & Tan, 2017). The intangible theft can occur due to incapability or unwilling to do their jobs due to idleness or inactively making personal things.

Best Practice to Prevent Employee Theft of International Hotels

Hotels are by nature filled with possible prospects for steals to bargain from house and companies. Employee theft is increasing but that does not mean that the organisations are completely helpless against it. The international hotels have adopted some strategy to avoid worker stealing in the organisation. Answerability is the important to avoid employee stealing (Goh, Muskat, & Tan, 2017). The organisation need to clearly defined accountability structure for managers and employees on every shift. The international hotels have maintained high-standards to enables good employees to excel and be recognised for their accomplishments (Kennedy, 2016). The international hotels have support to prevent employee theft in the business with high-accountability, reduce employee turnover and high employee satisfaction etc. Additionally, communication is an important way to prevent employee theft in international hotels (Johnson, 2017). Communicate with employees about the economy and how it will affect the organisation can prevent employee theft. The worldwide hotels can avoid worker stealing by being honest and open but discourage them from panicking. Moreover, education of employees can reduce employee theft in international hotels (Kennedy, 2016). Education of employees about what is considered fraud and the significances connected with it and accentuate that the organisation has no tolerance policy. The international hotels can try to maintain a positive work environment during tough times. The organisation should encourage open communication, listen to the ideas of employees and recognise employee achievement (Mars, 2019). On the other hand, structure and accountability enable supervisors to excel in a well-managed operation. The international hotels reward employees to prevent employee theft. Successful owners are proud to write detailed letters of recommendations for their prize employees as they move on to greater opportunities. Employee broadcast is one of the important ways to avoid steals from rapacious on the guest to ensure that they are not employed to exertion at a hotel in the major habitation (Johnson, 2017). The organisations have checked the criminal background of every employee and then the organisations have removed the possible forthcoming concerns with an employee who has established criminal performance in the previous.

Recommendations for Manage Employee Theft Effectively

This section will provide recommendations to manage employee theft efficiently by the hotel industry. The recommendations are given below.

• The hotel companies should increase company oversight by upper management and owners.
• The organisation should preserve an optimistic work environment during tough times. The organisation should inspire vulnerable communication and listen to the opinions of the employees and should recognise the achievements in the hotels (Goh & Kong, 2016).
• In the hotel industry, the organisation should make employees feel valued. This strategy will feel the employees that the organisations care about them by offering them adequate pay (Johnson, 2017).
• The organisation should focus on the reconcile bank statement to manage employee theft effectively. By reconcile bank statements immediately and do not keep large stores of cash on-site the organisation can manage employee theft (Mars, 2019).
• The organisation should encourage employees to use their vacation time in the hospitality industry. If someone will steal, then it may become more evident once they are away for a few days.
• The organisation should focus on internal policy to manage employee theft. The organisation should ensure to deposit at the end of each occupational. So there is not a momentous quantity of money on hand to attract steals (Peters & Maniam, 2016).
• The organisation should adopt employee screening to accomplish worker theft in the hotel industry. The organisation should take the hiring procedure seriously because employees are the most valuable asset of the hotel companies (Johnson, 2017). The organisation should check the background of the employee including criminal and the organisation should able to eradicate the possible for upcoming problems.

Conclusion

The difficulties of worker stealing in hotels has explored in this report. The report has explored the problem of worker stealing in the hotel industry, the problem of worker stealing in the diverse departments, inspiration for worker stealing and the types of worker stealing in hotels. In the hotel, employee theft has utilised when employees steal ingredients, cash, and suppliers at the time of working on the job (Tuna, Ghazzawi, Yesiltas, Tuna, & Arslan, 2016). It is an insidious crime because the employers are paying benefits and wage to the thief on top of paying for the cost of their dishonesty.

References

1. Brock Baskin, M. E., McKee, V., & Buckley, M. R. (2017). Time banditry and impression management behavior: Prediction and profiling of time bandit types. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 39-54.
2. Chen, C. T., & King, B. (2018). Shaping the organizational citizenship behavior or workplace deviance: Key determining factors in the hospitality workforce. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 1-8.
3. Goh, E., & Kong, S. (2016). Theft in the hotel workplace: Exploring frontline employees’ perceptions towards hotel employee theft. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 1-14.
4. Goh, E., Muskat, B., & Tan, A. H. (2017). The nexus between sustainable practices in hotels and future Gen Y hospitality students’ career path decisions. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 237-253.
5. Johnson, C. E. (2017). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow. London: Sage Publications.
6. Kennedy, J. P. (2016). Shedding light on employee theft’s dark figure: A typology of employee theft nonreporting rationalizations. Organization Management Journal, 49-60.
7. Mars, G. (2019). Cheats at work: An anthropology of workplace crime. London: Routledge.
8. Peters, S., & Maniam, B. (2016). Corporate fraud and employee theft: Impacts and costs on business. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 104.
9. Tuna, M., Ghazzawi, I., Yesiltas, M., Tuna, A. A., & Arslan, S. (2016). The effects of the perceived external prestige of the organization on employee deviant workplace behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 366-396.
10. Wells, J. T. (2017). Corporate fraud handbook: Prevention and detection. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Malaysia had been ranked as the fifth-worst country in terms of protecting the personal data of its citizen. In a study of privacy and surveillance of 47 countries by British tech website Comparitech, Malaysia was placed in the ‘some safeguards but weakened protection’ category with a score of 2.64 out of five points.

The study gave a score based on criteria which include constitutional protection, statutory protection, privacy enforcement, data sharing, visual surveillance, identity cards and biometrics and government access to data. Malaysia currently noted that only the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) protects the personal data of a person in the country. As the studied said that the collection and retention of biometric data are found in a person’s identification card, MyKad. It said for adults, the MyKad stored bank details and health information while for children, religion, birth and education data is stored in it. It is also said that facial recognition technology is on the rise in Malaysia, as seen in the collaboration between Grab Malaysia and the Transport Ministry. It pointed out that few laws were surrounding the use of facial recognition technology. The study also said sharing in Malaysia required written consent but the government’s platform (MyGDX) facilities intergovernmental agency data sharing. It added that CCTV monitoring was also prevalent, adding that there were few safeguards in place. The study also noted that Malaysia had been involved in ‘several large data breaches involving financial and medical details. Malaysia has been involved in several data breaches, among which includes the massive data leak of personal details of telecommunications service providers customers, the leak data of almost 20,000 patient records, and the personal data of Malindo Air customers.

In 2019, Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd rumoured in a forum has stealing user data which include a piece of sensitive information like address, passport number and phone number. However, Malindo Air had confirmed that they have used the expertise of CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) in helping the company to overcome the problem of data leakage involving the personal information of its passengers. ‘The airline has hired the services of the agency to look at the cause and to ensure the incident will not repeat again. Malindo uses CSM services to help, but let them do their investigation, we cannot make any decision without analytical investigation without proving it forensically’ said CyberSecurity Chairman, Jen (B) Tan Sri Mohd Azumi Mohamed. The investigation found that two former employees of e-commerce services provider company, GoQuo (M) Sdn Bhd at their development in Indian committed misconducted and stole the personal data of their customers. The matter was reported to the police in both countries, namely Malaysia and India.

This has triggered the user’s worries and anxiety. Muslim Pro is a popular Islamic lifestyle mobile application which nearly 150 million downloads around the world across 216 countries and lately has become a big issue in Malaysia or either outside of this country which believes that this application was indirectly selling user data to US military intelligence and counterterrorism unit. This issue has been discussed in many social media and websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and etc which concern a lot of peoples who is been providing access to their location and data. However, Muslim Pro denied that it has sold personal user data to the US military but confirmed to have conveniently handed off sensitive location to a third-party data broker, X-mode. Such the third-party data brokers typically auction off data to contractors, who in turn sell it to buyers and apparently, the buyers could also be the US military. The company said it is investigating its data governance practices to ensure user data was managed in line with global laws and regulations around data privacy protection. The company also said it is immediately ending its relationships with X-mode and all other data partners. ‘The trust of millions of brothers and sisters of the Ummah put in Muslim Pro every day means everything to us,’ Muslim Pro wrote in a statement after thousands of social media comments from Muslims worldwide decried the app’s sale of its user data as ‘betraying’ Muslims and allowing the military to ‘target’ Muslims for surveillance. The app’s compromise on data is not just a concern for Muslim but it is a red flag for all technology user out there. However, just a day after the fiasco unfolded on social media, with many angry users expressing their unease, Muslim Pro’s team sent out a press release on Twitter clarifying that ‘media reports circulating’ were ‘incorrect and untrue’. In the same statement published, they also claimed that they have terminated a relationship with all data partners especially with X-mode. In their defence, Muslim Pro also clarified that every single feature of the app is available without signing or logging in which contributed to the anonymity and the greatest selling point of course it is free. And rightly so, here the unilateral and non-consensual extraction of data has far more grave repercussions which the US military can use location-sensitive data to accurately target drone strikes. Besides, Muslim Pro has apologised to all the users. ‘We can confirm that their data is secure with us. We value the importance of the practising one’s faith, as well as our user privacy and will do everything we can to ensure we deliver on this promise.’ Said Muslim Pro’s team.

Another example, these issues often happen when you are searching for an item at online shopping such as Shopee, Lazada and etc. When you are open up other application such as Instagram or Facebook, it will suddenly pop-up an advertisement about the related item that you are searching at the online shopping application on your timeline. Thus, to avoid this you can try to clear cache or history reset on what you have search. However, by looking at these issues makes people more concerned about to protect their online privacy. But there are also who is look down this thing by which for example, many users do not read or understand the privacy implications of the licensing agreements they agree before using software, application and online services. Users who is freely share information online are often unaware of its use in data mining and online profiling. Thus, there are some ways that the user can try to do to protect all important data from being stolen which first is to secure the wireless transmissions. Data that you sent over a wireless network is even more subject to interception than that sent over an Ethernet network. Hacker doesn’t need physical access to the network or its devices, anyone with a wireless-enabled portable computer and a high gain antenna can capture data or get into the network and access data stored there if the wireless access point isn’t configured securely. Thus, the user needs to sent or stored data only on wireless networks that use encryption, preferably Wi-fi Protected Access (WPA), which is stronger than Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP). Next is by using the disk encryption as there are many third-party products available that will allow you to encrypt an entire disk. Whole disk encryption locks down the entire contents of a disk drive/partition and is transparent to the user. Data is automatically encrypted when it’s written to the hard disk and automatically decrypted before being loaded into memory. Some of these programs can create invisible containers inside a partition act like a hidden disk within a disk. Other users see only the data in the ‘outer’ disk. Disk Encryption product can be used to encrypt removable USB drives, flash drives and etc. Some allow the creation of a master password along with secondary passwords with lower rights you can give to other users. Example include PGP Whole Disk Encryption and DriveCrypt, among many others and there are so many other solutions can be done such as set an authentication, tokenization, data masking, erasure and etc. For Application on a smartphone, just if you heard an issue about the apps like Muslim Pro, take a fast action to uninstall the apps and do not link it to other apps. Or can directly report the suspicious apps to the Malaysian Medical Council (MCMC) operations.

In a conclusion, by choosing this topic can remind me and other people to always be careful and beware on sharing a piece of personal information either in the software, application and online services and keep update with the current issue that involving the user data by taking a fast action which for example uninstall the application or software immediately. The dangerous of data that has been stolen will either lead to cruelty or directly go to online black market which offer a range of complementary products, from the supply of hardware and software to steal data, the sale of the stolen data itself, to the provision of services to turn data into money, such as drops, cashiers and money laundering. This is why it is important to get to know on how to protect your data from being stolen. As there is a case that we cannot avoid such as the application itself sell our data to other, this is not our fault but still we can try to avoid or prevent the things from happen by not looking down on these issues. Last but not least, be careful on giving access to our location or photo to any platform and do not forget to monitor our family member especially kids this day which highly exposed to gadget and technology. Always remind them about how much important is our data and the dangerous of data stolen.

INTRODUCTION

There was a news reported in Berita Harian Online where three children, age between 12 to 14 years old, were charged in the Magistrate’s Court, for stealing items belonging to the people at a mosque. According to section 378 of Penal Code, “Whoever, intending to take dishonestly any movable property out of the possession of any person without that person’s consent, moves that property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft.”

There are specific legal provisions in Malaysia that regulate illegal acts committed by those aged between 12 and 18 years. These laws are the Child Act 2001 and Penal Code. The Child Act defines the primary framework, mechanisms and procedures for the children committing criminal offences. Through these regulations, it can be seen that the age of criminal liability under the Malaysian criminal justice system is 10 years old, while a child is a person who is less than 18 years old.

Theft from Islamic Perspective

In this era of globalization with vast development and technologies, it is undeniable that people nowadays have a sceptical thinking that amputation punishment for theft crime is considered as harsh and cruel. The punishment for this offence is called hudud which means forbidding or restraining, that is created by Allah S.W.T on purpose of our safety and prosperity.

The Islamic Law, or also known as the Shariah Law, defines Allah ‘s rules and instructions, in the best interests of man and for the direction of our life. Its aim is to show man the best way and provide him with the means to meet his needs in the most prosperous and beneficial way. There is nothing in it that tends to waste our powers, or overwhelm our natural needs and desires, or destroy our moral urges and emotions. The Shariah criminal law is basically divided into three main categories of crimes which are hudud, qisas, and ta’zir.

As the topic of this article is on theft, which the punishment of it fall under hudud, thus, the discussion will be specifically on hudud. Hudud means offences against Allah in the Islamic legal system. Other crimes like adultery (zina), robbery (hirabah), drinking of alcohol and apostasy (murtad) are also punishable under hudud in Islamic Law. These crimes are punished according to the stipulated sanctions as prescribed in the Quran and the Sunnah. The sentences are calculated specifically for each offense, based on the accused’s motive, the nature of the proof and other criteria. These crimes are in fact, infringement against natural law as perceived within an Islamic State’s cultures.

For instance, war declaration on an Islamic State is interpreted as to declare war on Allah and Prophet Muhammad SAW. This is clearly stated in the Quran in surah Al-Maaida (33): “The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and his messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land”.

Hudud are not meant to be punitive. The aim is to preserve law and order, through direct deterrence in a Muslim society. Contrary to generally accepted thought, Islam asks its followers to demonstrate compassion and clemency over the application of hudud. Islam also urges its followers to confess when they commit crimes and then return to the correct path. Prophet Muhammad SAW never like punishing his followers, but preferred teaching them and promoting repentance. Nonetheless, many jurists claim that Quranic punishments like hudud cannot be extended to anyone who repents after the offense and before the penalty is executed.

Importantly, Islam orders Muslims to be humane even while applying the hudud as Prophet Muhammad SAW said, “Strive to be humane to one another in applying Quranic punishments.” As a religion which loves peace, the essence of Shariah is also characterized by compassion and mercy. The Shariah and hudud ‘s ultimate goal is to protect human well-being and to create a just society. The Shariah is an important social and legal framework intended to bring profit and justice to all humanity.

Maximizing mercy is the central concept when applying the hudud punishments. This was clearly articulated in a hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad SAW, including his wife Saidatina Aishah and Caliphs Umar Al-Khattab and Ali Bin Abi Talib, “Ward off the hudud from the Muslims as much as you all can, and if you find a way out for the person, then let them go. For it is better for the authority to err in mercy than to err in punishment.” Within a century of Prophet Muhammad SAW’s passing, Islamic scholars had interpreted this hadith into the essential legal concept of ‘Ward off the hudud by ambiguities or shubhah.’

As this article is specifically on theft, thus, the discussion will be on it in detail. The punishment for theft crime is stated in the Quranic verse in Surah Al-Maaida (38), “As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hand as a reward of their own deeds, and as an exemplary punishment from God. For God is Mighty and Wise.” Thus, after someone has been convicted under theft crime, the judge will cut off their right hand. Then, if a thief steals again and the theft is proved, his left foot will be cut off.

What indicates that this ruling is definitive, is the fact that a Makhzoomi noblewoman, who was from the tribe of Makhzoom, stole at the time of the Prophet SAW and Usaamah Ibn Zayd, may Allah be pleased with him, wanted to intercede for her. The Prophet Muhammad SAW became angry and said:

“Do you intercede concerning one of the Hadd set by Allah? Those who came before you were destroyed because if a rich man among them stole, they would let him off, but if a lowly person stole, they would carry out the punishment on him. By Allah, if Fatimah Bint (daughter of) Muhammad were to steal, I would cut off her hand.” [Al-Bukhari]

Islam places theft among the crimes that can be punished by hudud. Thus, the conditions for convicting someone who is committing this theft crime are strict. The conditions to convict a person of committing the crime of theft are; first, the person who commits the crime of theft must have reached puberty. Narrated by Ahmad, Ashabi, Sunnah and Hakam hadith of the Prophet Muhammad SAW which means, “Allah will not punish three groups of people, namely people who sleep until he wakes up from his sleep, children until he is puberty and a madman until he is sensible.”

Thus, according to the four Sunni school of law, the theft of a free child will not incur amputation because he does not fulfil the requirement which is, he must be an adult for hudud punishment to be implemented on him. Abdullah Ibn Sinan relates the following tradition from Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.): “When a minor child steals for the first and the second time he is forgiven. If he does it for the third time, he is issued a strict warning and beating. If he persists in his crime, the tips of his fingers are slightly cut and if he repeats the act, some more of his fingers are cut away.”

In Islamic law, one reaches adulthood with all its rights and responsibilities at the time of puberty; either through physiological signs or upon attaining a certain age. Scholars from mazhab Syafie and Ahmad stated that the puberty age for both boys and girls is when they hit 15 years old (qamariyyah years) according to Ibn Umar;s narrative :

“I submit myself to the Prophet PBUH for Uhud when I was 14 years old and the Prophet PBUH did not allow me, for he does not consider me as someone who has reached the age of puberty. I submit myself to the Prophet PBUH when I was 15 years old for Khandak and he allowed me for he considers me as someone who has reached puberty.” (Sunan Ibn Hibban (4728) and the original narration can be found in al-Sahihayn)

While Imam Maliki and Imam Hanafi states that the age of puberty is at 18 years old (qamariyyah years). In conclusion, generally, mazhab al-Syafie and Ahmad set the age of puberty for a child at 15 years old, while mazhab al-Maliki and al-Hanafi set the age of puberty for a child at 18 years old.

In the opinion of Imam Shafie, if a minor can differentiate between right and wrong even before reaching adulthood, he is responsible to return the property which he stolen and is punishable under ta’zir.

Second, the stolen property must reach the prescribed rate of one quarter dinar which is equivalent to 1.06 grams. The value of the object stolen has to be considered before the execution of amputation, as mentioned in a Hadith where Saidatina Aishah cited the Prophet Muhammad SAW saying: “A thief’s hand should be not cut off except for a quarter of dinar and upwards”. The required or minimum value under Islamic criminal law for the stolen item is, should be at least one quarter or the equivalent of a dinar, in order to prove someone commits theft crime.

Muhammad Ibn Muslim asked Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) about the minimum value of stealing that able to make one liable for amputation of his hands. Imam Ja’far answered that it is a quarter of a dinar. Ibn Muslim went on to say that what if someone stole two dirhams and Imam Ja’far replied that a dirham is more than a quarter of a dinar. Thus, the hands are amputated in all those cases. Ibn Muslim even questioned the implications of stealing less than a quarter of a dinar, and will the person be called as a thief.

Imam Ja’far told him that in Allah’s eyes, every such person who steals the property of the Muslims and keeps it for himself, is a thief. That means, even though his hands are not cut off in this world, Allah will punish him with the punishment reserved for all those who steal. Besides, we would find most of the people with their hands severed if the hands of those who steal less than a quarter dinar were also to be cut.

Third, the property stolen from a suitable storage place. The property has had to be kept in a safe location that the thief broke through violently. The property should have been maintained in a secure keeping (hirz). The idea behind ‘hirz’ implies safeguarding and physical security over an object at a place like a residential apartment.

Fourth, the thing must have been taken by stealth or in secrecy; if it was not taken by stealth, then the hand would not be cut off. For example, when property was forcefully confiscated in front of other citizens. In this case, the owner of the property may have called for help to stop the theft.

Fifth, the stolen goods should be worth something, for that which is useless, has no sanctity such as musical instruments, wine, and pigs. If the used of the stolen items are Haram, which means non-permissible in Islam, thus, there is no criminal action is taken against the thief.

Sixth, the person from whom the property was stolen, have to ask back for it. If he does not, the thief’s hand must not be cut off. The thief is not prosecuted if the owner takes back his goods or allows the thief to keep them before the matter is reported to the judge (Qadhi), or the owner does not ask for the thief to be punished. Nevertheless, even the owner cannot save the thief from prosecution if the crime is proven before the judge.

Seventh, there should be no element of shubhah which means doubt, such as stealing something, for example vegetables, meat, and bread, which rots quickly. Imam Abu Hanifah is of the opinion that in this situation, the hudud penalty for stealing is excused. Nevertheless, Abu Yusuf disagrees with Abu Hanifah and holds the same opinion as Imam Malik, Imam Shafie and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who do not think that anything that rapidly rots, is a cause of any shubhah.

Next, to prove a theft, two just (‘adl) male witnesses must have seen the thief steal. The two male witnesses are to testify to all of the case’s details. Their testimony must not conflict with one another. The hudud may not be applied if they change their testimony prior to execution. This may also be that, there is only one witness, but the owner also testifies that there has been theft. The thief may also confess his crime twice and deserve to be punished for theft under hudud. However, if he only confesses once, the stolen goods are taken away from him and be returned to the owner. Thus, he is not punished for theft.

Therefore, to be convicted of theft crime under the Shariah Law, a number of requirements must be fulfilled including the thief must be an adult. If this requirement fails to be fulfilled, hudud punishment for theft cannot be implemented to the offenders.

Factors That Contribute to Theft Crime

Stealing can be seen as a common activity among children and there are actually lots of factors that lead them in doing so. In this research, we are looking into the factors that contribute to theft crime committed by children, specifically in Kuala Lumpur.

First, most of them find it difficult to grasp the definition of private property that is, they do not have the property rights that belong to someone else. Small children are naive, and cannot distinguish between things that belong to them and things that belong to other people. They maybe take somebody else’s stuff, thinking it is their own. In such a situation, children are unaware of the fact that they are doing anything wrong. Often, they believe that what is someone else’s is also theirs, but we can expect more from the children who are going to school because they are starting to grasp the idea of ownership. When a child displays a lack of understanding of rules and control, then it is time for us to sit down with them and let them understand it.

Most of the children specifically in Kuala Lumpur, usually stole motorcycles and the reason is, due to friends’ influence and pressure such as the child being challenged by their friends to commit the crime. In addition, sometimes, the children commit theft to make themselves look cool in front of their peers. The older kids might steal because they like the risk of doing so. Peer pressure and the need to fit in are also a major cause of stealing.

Some kids get depressed when a group boycotts them, simply because they come from a relatively poor family. They stole due to the need to fit into a group with members of the high-class society. Peer pressure can be more disheartening than it may seem. Children often engage in the act of stealing to please their peers. Parents can find it difficult to comprehend the true strength for children who are under such strain. A parent should make sure their child survives in an environment like this or change his or her environment.

Besides, a large number of them commit theft because they do not have money to buy what they want. For example, the children have a desire to own a motorcycle which was on trending such as Y15, Honda X5 and LC135. The sense of envy grows right from childhood and the urge to have nice or expensive items will cause the children to steal. Many kids are jealous of their classmates too, who have beautiful things, such as wonderful pens or latest lunch boxes and thus, they turn to stealing, to get the same thing. This kind of reason for stealing should be dealt with, as priorities. Thus, parent should teach them to value their own things and try to find happiness and satisfaction with their own stuff.

Furthermore, the children commit theft due to family matters such as they were having financial problems, or their parents were too busy with their works and neglect their children. The finding of a study stated that relationship between family affect behavioral problems among young offenders. If the bond in a family is good, the percentage of adolescents commit crime is lower. Most of the young offenders are from broken, poor families and have many siblings, not receiving parental love and having strained family relationships.

For instance, they are exposed by violation at home or have been neglected by their parents and faced the conflict of religion conversion. These children faced these entire problems by themselves and they do not know how to deal with those problems. Therefore, they decided to run away from their home and some of them have lost their control and commit the crime including theft.

Sometimes, lack of parents’ attention drives kids to steal. They know that they will get their parents attention by stealing. In such a case, parents need to be more attentive to their children so that they will not have to invent these negative ways to make the parents notice them. Often it may be that the child is very sad and in need of the affection of the parents, and that he or she risks something and steals so that he or she is scolded. Any attention the parents give is good enough for them.

Practices of parental control play a key role in delinquency. Boys convicted of stealing crimes and crimes against persons are likely to have less parental supervision. Children who have not been supervised during middle childhood can be found fighting, lying, and stealing outside the home. Frequent monitoring by the parents especially, discourages criminal behavior of the children and distinguish one-time offenders from repeat offenders.

Many of those who are chronic offenders are often low-class society, have a large family sizes, criminal parents, poor parental discipline, and have conflict with parents. Marital dispute, divorce and single-parent homes are relatively good predictors of potential delinquency. In addition, when a divorced parent remarries, boys aged 12 to 15 are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors, especially involving violence and theft.

Kids consider the perfect way to show their frustration and revenge by stealing. If they are angry with someone who is stronger than them, stealing turns out to be the only way to make someone else suffer. When a kid knows for a fact that someone is going to get angry with him or her for stealing, particularly the parent, and they have seriously upset him or her, then the kid will return to stealing just to wind it up. But this is nothing, but emotional acting and the parents have to deal with it in a very simple manner. Parents should talk to the child and let him or her vent out his or her emotions in front of them.

Lastly, due to the children having the opportunity to commit theft such as the motorcycle’s owner negligently placed the key on the motorcycle. For some kids, stealing is an audacious act and the children steal things just for the rush of adrenaline and enjoy the fun of not getting caught. The act brings them excitement and channel their energy into something more exciting and inspire them to do more things. Thus, this will require a little bit of knowing the child’s true nature and parents must make sure the child has other options in his or her life to get excitement and adventure.

If it came down to it, would it make sense for one to steal something for their survival? What if it was only for the betterment of oneself? How about if one did not care or even fully realize what they were doing? Would all of these still be considered thievery? Questions like these have the power to shroud opinions about what is defined as right and wrong. These certain questions are able to challenge people on their take of the difference between stealing for survival and stealing for greed. Ideas like these, revolving around the rightness of thievery, present themselves many times throughout The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak. This novel follows the life of the main character Liesel Meminger as she adapts to her new life while trying to survive in World War II Germany. Throughout the novel, Liesel and many others discover that one of the only ways to thrive is by stealing. By doing this, the definition of what stealing really means is questioned due to the actions of certain characters. In The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, the theme of thievery is brought up multiple times and develops through the actions of the main character Liesel, various side characters, and Nazi population, along with their supporters.

Thievery has many different ways of portraying itself. In the case of this story, this theme is first evident in the main character, Liesel Meminger. She uses stealing as a way to find freedom in her life; thus, resulting in the action of thievery to play a large role in her upbringing. From the very beginning of the novel, Liesel used thievery to connect her to memories of the past, and uses it to remind her of her old life. “There was something back and rectangular lodged in the snow. Only the girl saw it. She bent down and picked it up and help it firmly in her fingers” (Zusak 24). This is the first instance of Liesel using thievery as an outlet. She was at her only brother’s funeral and she saw a dropped book so she used it as an opportunity take something to always be able to remember the last moment she had with her brother and not long after, her mother. Had she not stolen that book, her memory of her brother and mother would not have been as strong. While her brother may have died, and her mother may have left, she still connects and finds comfort with the idea of them being there with her in her times of need. This root ultimately goes back to the stolen book. While she may have a new family now, Liesel’s life of thievery did not end there. At one of the infamous Nazi book burnings, Liesel discovers books that have survived the flames, “The heat was still strong enough to warm her when she stood at the foot of the ash heap. When she reached her hand in she was bitten, but on the second attempt, she made sure she was fast enough. She latched on to the closest books” (Zusak 120). This implies how one of Liesel’s only loves, books, were often obtained through the use of stealing. She could have come up with other ways to get books, but she knew, that in that moment, stealing was the easiest way to get them. Liesel risked her life and her family’s life by stealing those books from the fire. That was not the only time Liesel used thievery as a way to get books. The novel reads, “But very calmly and cleanly, Liesel walked over, picked up the book, and made her way cautiously out”(Zusak 289). Liesel goes into the mayor’s library with the only intent of getting a book. She knew that it would not have been wise to steal anything more than she came for, even when her best friend was willing her to do so. In both of these instances, Liesel used her skill for stealing in a methodical sense, she never did anything more than she knew she should. Liesel always stuck to her plan and never tried for more. While the theme of thievery in this novel is found in many characters, Liesel Meminger shows one of the strongest connections with this theme. She steals multiple times throughout the novel; however, she always has a reasoning behind it.

Everyone has the power to steal, and there are many people who decide to act on that power. Liesel might be the main culprit creating the theme of thievery in The Book Thief, but there are multiple other side characters that use that idea in their own ways. This book takes place in World War II Germany, so it is understandable that there would be multiple characters that turn to the life of crime. When rations are low and stomachs are empty, Liesel’s best friend, Rudy Steiner, takes matters into his own hands. He decides to go to the market and try to steal the biggest potato there. During this process, the novel quotes, “Inconspicuous as he was, however, he managed to take hold of the biggest potato in the lot…They all looked on as the thirteen-year old fist rose up and grabbed it” (Zusak 293, 294). When Rudy stole this potato, it was not out of necessity, it was out of greed. This is significant because it shows the different ways that thievery in incorporated in the story, because many different characters have different motives for why they have resorted to stealing. Further in the story, there is a group of kids that go and steal apples from orchards. Arthur Bergs happens to be the leader of this group and the story states, “Fruit stealers…they noticed Fritz Hammer-one of their older counterparts-eating an apple…’Where did you get those?’ Rudy asked. The boy only grinned at first, ‘Shhh’”(Zusak 150). By showing this group of thieves, it helps the story progress. Readers can infer just how bad the lifestyle was starting to get. Even kids had to band together to get enough food to stay healthy. If this use of thievery was not included, readers might have underestimated just how hard the characters had it;Thus, progressing the story. For most of the story, characters are stealing objects needed for survival or simply for greed; However, there has been no mention of stealing people. Liesel’s father, Hans Hubermann shows the theme of thievery by stealing the jew, Max Vandenburg. In Germany at that time, it was considered a crime to be associated with a jew at that time, and it was an incredible risk to keep one in your basement; However, those were risks Hans was willing to take when he let the Jewish man stay. As stated in the story, “Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew”(Zusak 211). The use of thievery in this case is inferred to show the kindness of Hans. When someone thinks of thievery, most seem to deem it as bad; but in this case, thievery is actually used to demonstrate humanity. Hans knew the trouble he could get into, but he also knew he needed to help Max just because he knew it was right. There were many instances throughout The Book Thief that used a multitude of different and unique characters as a way to incorporate the theme of thievery into every aspect of the novel.

While physical stealing is something that commonly happens, indirect thievery is also a very common concept. A key part of The Book Thief is how the Nazis are terrorizing people such as jews, political opposers, or people of color. This leads into the idea of how the Nazis are stealing the humanity, lives, and families from many characters in the story. There were many place holding characters that seemed as though they have lost all human decentity, “Max, with the rest of the Jews, was steadily rejected and repeatedly trodden”(Zusak 192). This line clearly infers that Max, a Jew, was starting to get outcasted from society. This is exactly where thievery is involved, there are people in the story who have started to deprive others of their basic human rights. While some of these characters might not know what they are fully doing, this is an action that is not ignored as thievery. The lives of many people were also stolen. From wars to concentration camps, many unnecessary lives were stolen throughout the story. Death brings mention to this, “There was, of course, the matter of forty million people I picked up by the time the whole thing was finished…”(Zusak 112). Over the course of forty million people, approximately three million of them were people who would have been applicable for concentration camps. The Nazis stole the lives of millions of people in attempt to have their “perfect world.” The lives stolen from the Nazis were had very hard effects on the families of the dead; That is, if that was not already stolen. During this time, families were broken apart because of different members taking sides on the matter. When it came to the Hubermanns, this was the case between Hans and his son. “‘You’re either for the Fübrer or against him-and I can see you’re against him. You always have been’…watching a father grab hold of his son and begging him to stop…’Come back!’ The boy was gone”(Zusak 105,106). While the novel did include that Hans and his son have never had the closest relationship, the actions found in this quote show just how badly families were pulled apart. To certain characters, their family was all they had left, so by them being ripped apart over sides of a war, it really brought out the worst in the actions of Nazis. The Nazis stole some of the most precious things that people had left, even people who were not in the minority could still have their family stolen from them because of a disagreement of politics. It is inferred that there were multiple different families that felt this affect of thievery, either from a disagreement or from the death or loss of their family. Stealing something is never a good thing; However the actions of the Nazis stealing humanity, lives, and families is something that have a powerful impact on the theme of thievery in The Book Thief.

The idea of stealing has been one that people have questioned for a rather long time due to morals. Throughout The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, the theme of thievery shown itself in many powerful ways that have proved to show both ethical and unethical uses of this power.. It was present in simple acts of thievery from Liesel and other characters, to large ideas such as the Nazis stealing humanity, lives, and families. There were some characters who needed stealing to survive, while others did it only for greed. The same question still remains. In the novel, are characters still considered having good intentions even though the theme of thievery was very prominent between all of them? While questions like that may never truly be answered, one thing is for certain. People will always question the morals behind thievery; However, it is only the thieves intentions that matter.

Abstract

Houston Astros cheating scandal is among many immoral approaches when it comes to sports. The scarlet letter has been painted “C” for cheaters on Houston Astros. It is the punishment that was handed by Major League Baseball (MLB) after illegally stealing the signs in the 2017 World Series Championships. There were several other sentences that the team incurred, but the biggest of all is that they breached ethical policies in sports. The paper will focus on the problem and ethical analysis of the Houston Astros cheating scandal.

Keywords: MLB, ethics, teleology, value theory, relativism, deontology, intuitionism

Current Event – The Houston Astros Cheating Scandal

In November 2017, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drelich of the Athletic raised the alarm about Houston Astros cheating. The article reported that Houston Astros utilizes electronic signs during the 2017 World Series Championship season. Shortly after the report had been published, MLB started an investigation, and Commissioner Rob Manfred released the results on Jan 13, 2018. The investigation proved that, indeed, Houston Astros electronically stoles the signs in 2017 and part of 2018 seasons. The club under numerous legal proceedings was fined $5 million and was disqualified from the second-round draft of 2020 and 2012. The perpetrators of the theft GM Jeff Lanchow and Manage A.j Hinch were suspended for one year from the league, and the club later fired them.

Problem Analysis

As highlighted above, Astros utilized a camera that was placed in the middle of the field to cheat on the signs during the play. The personnel would watch feed in a halfway between dugout, and clubhouse and could instead relay the signs coming to the hitter by hitting a garbage can. During the investigation, it was proven that Astros create a technique utilizing illegal systems to create signs so that a runner on the second base could relay the warning to the hitter. Astros could whistle and clap to send the symbols from the dugout before setting on banging a garbage can (Barna, 2019). During the investigation, it was confirmed that throughout the 2017 seasons, the club stole the signs.

The cheating scandal was a huge deal because it was against rules, both written, unwritten, and old-schools teaching. Baseball undertook essential steps of banning this type of behavior that started from 2019 seasons. It limited live-feed access available to a team without any-inhouse camera between foul poles. MLB has since warned all clubs again any form of high-tech cheating in regular or postseason. Houston Astros received five significant penalties, which include the suspension of Manager A.J. Hinch for one year. GM Jeff Luhnow and GM Brandon Taubman were also suspended for one year. The club forfeited the first and second-round draft pick for the subsequent 2 years, and they were fined $5 million. The players, however, received immunity from MLB with an exchange of maximum cooperation during the season (Osborne, 2017).

From the analysis after the investigation, it was concluded that all teams tried to steal the signs because it is part of the game. The main problem is how the signs are being stolen. Houston Astros took the cheating scandal very far because all the players were receiving specific alerts such as whistles and claps. There are many circumstances where the teams have used technology and went unreported or undetected. Houston Astros was the latest club that was exposed, and undoubtedly it will not be the last.

Ethical Analysis

There exist ethical issues surrounding the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Ethics exist in each field and specifically in sports. In the basic terms, ethics is knowing what is right from wrong. The main ethical issue is that the Houston Astros as a team knew that signs stealing scheme are morally wrong (Epstein & Osborne, 2017). Everyone, including the manager, was aware of the plan, and as noted in MLB investigations, the players were also informed. MLB argued that all the players were interviewed and admitted that they knew the idea was wrong and not a fair competition, plus it violated MLB rules.

The cheating scandal can be analyzed using ethical theories such as relativism, teleology, deontology, intuitionism, & value theory. Relativism is a concept that states that there is no absolute truth in ethics, and what is morally right or wrong differs from one individual to another or from one community to the other. From the investigation carried out by MLB on the Houston Astros cheating scandal, it is clear that they were aware of the signs stealing scheme, thus against the values of ethical relativism. The principal value of relativism is truth, and with universal baseball rules, there is no variation from what is morally wrong or right in one team or the other. All the teams should subscribe to one crucial rule in sports, fair competition.

Intuitionism is an ethical theory that states that essential truth is known intuitively. The intuition of a person knows something because it is accurate and should guide a person in each action. It helps a person to understand fundamental morals. About the Houston Astros cheating scandal, the management and players knew that stealing signs is not good, but they were honest that indeed they stole. In this case, their intuition was a pretty powerful philosophy because, at the end of the day, they retain their title, and the players received immunity as long as they cooperated during the investigation.

Value theory, on the other hand, is concerned and asks how and why individuals value somethings such as a person, idea, objects, and so forth. Moral and natural goods are also related to value theory. It also deals with theoretical questions about goodness and values that cross the line between metaethical and normative ethics. In reference to Houston Astros, they valued the trophy more than anything else, and they were ready to cross the line of ethics and make the history books being rewritten. What sounds like a harsh punishment was not a punishment at all because they retained the title, and only two men lost the jobs.

Teleology is an ethical theory that argued that there is a moral obligation from what is right and desirable. Deontology, on the other hand, is the fundamental standard for an action to be morally right, and the actions are independent of the good or bad being generated. From the cheating scandal, it is clear that they subscribed from the teleological approach that the end justifies the means. The teams were willing to do the best for the majority and sacrifice only two individuals that were suspended. The teams clearly selected to follow the utilitarian approach in doing their business as compared to normative ethics. Although the reputation is ruined, the end for sure justified the means.

Conclusion

Each company tends to incline only one ethical approach over others. For Houston Astros, the reputation will take a long time to build when they lost it overnight. They are usually many consequences for each action. Ethics in sports was implemented to create a playing field that people will compete based on their skills, ability, and hard work. It was also designed to protect billions of people, both fans and players, in the future. Doing the right thing is moral in sports, and from this, Astros can be argued that they changed the truth of the game.

References

1. Barna, A. G. (2019). Stealing Signs: Could Baseball’s Common Practice Lead to Liability for Corporate Espionage? Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law, 8.
2. Epstein, A., & Osborne, B. (2017). Teaching Ethics with Sports: Recent Developments. Marq. Sports L. Rev., 28, 301.
3. Osborne, B. (2017). Legal and Ethical Implications of Athletes’ Biometric Data Collection in Professional Sport. Marq. Sports L. Rev., 28, 37.

Unethical behaviour refers to the type of behaviour that does not conform to a high moral standard or a set of expected behaviour from certain individuals. In South Africa, there is a problem of unethical behaviour in the government sector, business sectors and in the education sector. These behaviour include the following, stealing money from the business, abusing of power, nepotism and other etc. In this essay we will discuss the impact of unethical behaviour in our society also explains why people find themselves behaving unethically ad immorally in different sectors, examples of unethical behaviours will also be discussed in this essay. In conclusion, we will explain the importance of ethics and morality for the benefit of the citizens.

Unethical behaviour occur when the action is set out to take advantage of another person without their knowledge or consent. Even though unethical behaviour is bad, not all unethical situation is illegal. Today society has been completely out of touch with the most basic principles of integrity and moral fairness.

Corruption

Corruption is characterized as private individual or enterprises who misuse public resources for private power and or political power. They do so through public officials whose public official whose behaviour deviates from the formal government rules of conduct. There are different types of corruption which are fraud, conflict interest and favouritism. You may discover that the person who is within control of cash any cash within the trade, who is announcing any sum of cash to shareholders is taking cash as well as the evaluators of the trade. There is incorrect for the business since the commerce might conclusion up making no benefit. These might affect gravely to society since people who work for trade who are employments that cash they were paid to supply for their families might conclusion up being unemployed

Fairness

Another one is fairness. Fairness is another example of being unethical. Fairness is an impartial and just treatment or behaviour without favouritism or discrimination. Everyone should treat others as they wish to be treated, for example, when an employee does not practice fairness, it causes unjustified hate and prejudice. The manager who doesn’t treat every employee as equal is unethical even though it is not illegal.

Selecting Candidates

Sometimes you will find out that in our government there are people who are being selected for being in certain position because they have money, or their whites or the gave others some cash so that he/she can get more votes for being chosen in certain position or sleep with his/her manager to get promotion or being selected to any position. This is unethical because we are all equal, everyone deserves much in life so there is no one who will be given a position at work without meeting any requirements for the position.

Stealing Money

Any person who steals from government is stealing from the poor. Our ministers, steal money to buy luxury things in other to impress, sometimes you will find that they steal money to open their business for their own benefit. The money that they are stealing it impacts on us as the society also the economy, government can’t satisfy our need due to shortage of money. The society end up having shortage of water, electricity and other needs which are important for the community.

In conclusion, unethical behaviour can be control and manage, being ethical is a good thing whether at work or in the business but it is the major behaviour in all aspects. People should know how to respect one another and behave in a proper manner and trust one another so that the future generation can be able to have a chance to behave the way we do behave. Most of people tend to disrespect one another because they be thinking they are better compare to others, and to that situation it affects the rest of the world. Unethical behaviour its effects can seriously limit the development of national economies and undermine good governance. Corruption, fairness, selecting candidates, fraud, nepotism, abusing power can erodes stability, trust and honesty, it damages the ethos of democratic governance.

References:

1. Napolitan, N.2018. How the government is stealing money.Vanderbijilpark.
2. Loyiso, S.2019.Any person who steals is stealing for the poor.http:www.zoutnet.co.za. Date of access 1 Sep.2018
3. Bajwa, S.2001Anti-corruption efforts in South Africa.The journal public inquiry. .

Decisions between what is right and wrong are presented to all of us in some shape or form. For example, an ethical dilemma is a decision in which we challenge our own beliefs to decide between right and wrong. Ethical dilemmas only occur when two or more ethical standards apply but conflict with each other. These moral dilemmas appear when a difficult problem or situation may not be solved in a way that will satisfy all parties involved. Usually, one action violates ethical wrongdoing, while the other step is morally right. Stealing to feed your family is a classic example. While stealing is ethically wrong, in some cases, such as those that involve saving a life, it is the morally correct thing to do.

First, as stated in the thesis statement, stealing is morally wrong. However, life is precious and a gift from God. Once an individual dies, he will never come to existence for a second time. An individual lives once. The society within which we live is also mandated to protect human lives. Besides, the main reason for a government is to protect its citizens from attack, resolve conflicts, and protect their properties. The law prohibits stealing and vandalizing properties. However, a crucial question arises; does the law prohibit stealing in any given situation?

Define the ethical dilemma

Faced by a situation where a man is starving, and a nearby bakery is closed, I would break it, steal a loaf of bread to feed the man. Though the law prohibits stealing, it does not consider such a situation when an individual experiences an ethical dilemma. From my position, I feel that at times, it is essential to discard the law since it cannot anticipate every eventuality which may arise in our day occurrences.

The bakery owner has a right to own properties. He is also entitled to protection from the local authority. A starving resident has the right to life and security too. The local authority is, therefore, mandated to enforce the law and resolve conflicts between the citizens. While deciding between saving life and breaking the bakery, I will evaluate the harm linked to my action. I feel that it is more harmful to let a starving man die than stealing a bread.

Influences on Decision Making

Stealing one bread in the bakery would have an insignificant impact on the level of profit. The owner may not even realize the loss of his balance sheet. The cost of producing the bread could also be significantly low since the baker commercially produces goods on a large scale. The act is evil though a necessary evil. In connection with the same observation, people believe that stealing is highly unethical. I criticize this statement since I feel it is even more immoral to witness a hungry man die by refusing to steal (Amidon, Joel, et al., 28).

Ethical standards

Ethical standards can be defined as guidelines that are followed to promote values such as ethical behavior, trust, kindness, and fairness. Such instructions are enforceable and subject to interpretation. The ethical standards that help to promote harmony is a society.

Kindness, honesty, loyalty, and law-abiding are notable examples of ethical behaviors in a society. The act of being kind should not be limited to wealth. People with a lot of wealth may not be in a position to help others. Kindness and fairness may conflict with the principle of the law-abiding. Since I have no money, this does not imply I will have to follow the law and ignore the value of life strictly.

Laws Broken and Repercussions

My decision to break the bakery and steal to save a life is also based on the following questions; what is vital between life and death? What is vital between life and property? Notably, the answer to these questions is simply LIFE. Unlike properties, lives can never be replaced. As a member of society, it is essential to save a life by breaking societal ethics than observing another member of a community losing the precious gift (Shavell, Steven, 34). Due to the lack of an alternative to save the starving man from death, stealing is a morally right decision.

Responsibility

The ethical dilemma in question is a matter of life and death. At my position, life is more precious, and I would be ready to face judgment from others and positively accept the responsibilities for error. Stealing is illegal and would result in strict measures by the local authority. However, when an individual dies while I am in a position to save, I will feel guilty.

Ethical Dilemma Evaluation

A moral dilemma dictates the choice of one action and foregoing the alternative. Based on the ethical dilemma, it is morally right to save life compared to letting the individual die. Stealing is universally immoral but a necessary evil when it comes to a situation of life and death. The choice of stealing a loaf of bread is less expensive than losing someone’s life. To justify the decision, suppose you were in an area under attack. You happen to find the attacker with his gun at hand, almost shooting innocent people. Would you stop shoot him too to save others, or would you let him proceed and kill others? You would kill him to save others. Killing is unethical. However, killing the attacker would save more lives and, therefore, a necessary evil.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development have three distinctive phases, which include re-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. The pre-conventional stage postulates that children’s morality is controlled externally. Children believe that authority is ever right. For instance, they will not question their parents and teachers since they have not understood right and wrong. In the conventional stage, the child’s sense of morality is strictly grounded in societal and personal relationships. At this point, individuals are less interested in the welfare of others. In the conventional stage, individuals are expected to obey the rules. The laws are believed to be equal across all individuals. Notably, this implies that all individuals are expected to do what they are supposed to do. Lastly, in the post-conventional stage, an individual’s morality is guided by more abstract values. The laws are viewed to be less rigid but more social contracts.

Debatably, guided by the Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, at times, it is essential to break the law since they should not remain rigid and fixed. The universal ethical principle orientation postulates that rules are only valid if they are based on justice.

Morality vs. Law Argument

There are five approaches to the argument for law and morality, which include; utilitarian, virtue, common good, rights, and justice. The utilitarian approach requires an individual to undertake a decision which is least harmful or most good. The right approach, on the other hand, postulates that the best choice is one that respects the moral rights of the involved. Fairness requires that everyone is treated equally, and we should be in a position to defend our decision. The common good approach indicates that we should always do what is best. Lastly, the virtue approach is based on the fact that our actions should always be consistent with given virtues.

The model is clear for decision making in a moral dilemma. First, I am expected to make a less harmful decision. Saving is less dangerous than stealing. I am also likely to make the right decision, which at my position, stealing to save a life is the best.

In summary, life is precious, and we should use all means to save it. We only live once, and therefore, it would be unfair to leave an individual to die because they are poor. Material wealth should not limit our kindness; we can steal to save others, as indicated by the approach of the common good.

Opinion and personal perspective

Arguably, it is also important to base the argument on an individual’s point of view. Faced by the same situation, would I steal to save my life, or would I wait to die? Regardless of how holy I am, I would save my life. Debatably, this implies the same situation when a brother or a sister is suffering. The consequence of breaking the bakery would be imprisonment, the local authority may authorize me to pay the repair cost, or I would be entitled to work for a given period without a salary. Such decisions would be reasonably cheaper than losing a soul (Rank &Sarah, 27).

Conclusion

In life, we should expect to face a moral dilemma where the decision we make is subject to critics. Some people will completely disagree with my decision, but I feel it is the best. At a point of life and death, make decisions that save life since life is a gift from God, which, when destroyed, it can never be repaired.

Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of action. Ethics is a requirement for human life. It is our means of deciding a course of action, without ethics our actions would be aimless. A basic rule is do not steal, something children learn from early on in their lives.

People often use words like good or bad defining what they know as ethical behaviour. Different views of stealing and attitudes to it in the context of an ethical and moral analysis can be illustrated by what results we get depending on whether the analysis is based on consequential or non-consequential.

John Stuart Mill was a philosopher who is considered to be an influential philosopher. Stuart Mill advocated utilitarianism. In this interpretation, stealing is considered wrong because it harms the victim.

A Utilitarianism approach; an action is right in so far as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct. It is being said that stealing is wrong because it causes losses to people.

The reasons for not stealing based on consequentialism include the consequence of harming other people by taking their property from them. (Thiroux Jacques). However, not only a victim of thefts who are harmed. Stealing as practice may affect entire areas and communities, the younger generation can get involved in stealing. Stealing may have pronounced negative consequences for a person who steals. Stealing can be justified in terms of short-term consequences as an easy way of getting something without using extra money (Hinman).

Other challenging aspects involve arguments for stealing that refer to the corrupt economic system and the interpretation of consequences as good or bad.

A non-consequential Approach; a theory according to which the rightness or wrongness of an act. A non-consequentialist approach holds a different view stating that morality should be rooted in ethical principles to be followed.

These ethical and moral principles were developed by Kant. For example, stealing in the Robin Hood era, with the purpose of taking from the wealthy and giving to the poor is bad because the goals cannot justify dishonest acts of stealing that are inherently wrong. Negative consequences for a person who steals in the form of risks of being punished that evolve from the consequential approach are backed up by the non-consequential stance that points out such negative effects for a thief as feeling guilty of thefts, losing self-respect. All these aspects are related to the inherent principles of personality and are no less important than easily recognized, material, so to say, constituents of stealing.

Now when moral values are often degraded, with a huge number of people who take up a relativistic orientation lending itself to ambiguous stance the non-consequential approach may seem to lose some of its relevance.

However, in situations that cannot be consistently interpreted as good or bad using the consequential approach it is the non-consequential one that resolves the paradox and helps people choose the moral way of addressing controversial issues. An example of an issue is copying that is seen as stealing copyright materials. A consequential approach, the outcomes can be positive, with lots of people getting access to music and other sites they enjoy. At the same time, such practices harm individuals’ intellectual property rights, which is bad. The problem can be resolved by applying the non-consequential principles that prevent copying as an action amounting in its moral characteristics to stealing.

Stealing is condemned on the basis of both consequential and non-consequential views, although these analyse it using different principles.

References

1. Fieser, James. Moral Philosophy through the Ages. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2019. Print.
2. Hinman, Lawrence M. Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory. 5 ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Publishing; 2019. Print.
3. Thiroux, Jacques P. and Krasemann Keith W. Ethics: Theory and Practice. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2019. Print.