Tyr and Justice

I have been at school all day, studying for my exams. My first exam is this Saturday and the subject is Criminal Theory. The course is an overview of various criminological theories about crime, chiefly concerned with why crime occurs in the first place and how it cane be solved. Thinking crime and justice I started thinking more about Tyr.

As I noted in an earlier post, Tyr's hand was bitten off by Fenrir. I assume it was his right hand, and I believe we can assume Tyr was right-handed. In addition to being the god of justice, Tyr was a warrior. When I think of a warrior god of justice, who has no sword hand, and thus cannot wield his sword I wonder what that says about our own justice system and the pursuit of it.

This Criminal Theory course I am taken has taught me one thing: crime is an endemic problem in American society, yet we have no way of solving it. First, we cannot determine the cause of crime. We do not now why people commit crime. We don't know exactly who commits crime. We don't know how often people commit crime. Second, even if we knew all these factors that make up "the criminal," we still could be at a loss for how to address it. What do we do if positivist theories are true, and that people are genetically pre-determined to commit crime? Do we go out Minority Report style and incapacitate all prospective criminals? What if the Marxists are correct, and crime is a necessary aspect of the capitalist system? Do we have to have a socialist revolution to solve crime? Would we do that?

All these questions bring me back to Tyr. Tyr is the god of justice, but without his sword hand he is not able to swing the sword of justice. Does that echo our own problem as Americans in law enforcement today? We have vast power at our disposal. Yet, we still cannot control crime and keep it at a manageable rate in California. Perhaps the story of Fenris and Tyr states more than it initially appears.