dinner table conversation contributed to parents’ failure to talk frankly to
their teenagers about the dangers of unprotected early sex.
411
Introduction
Causation involving legal rules may be simple. Rule X is enacted and causes
Y. Causation can also be complex. There can be a great complexity in the
relationship between a law and its effect. Social phenomena such as these exist
in a complicated matrix for which the causes are many, layered, intertwined,
interdependent and hidden. Legal causes can be mixed with non legal causes.
Consequently, for any situation there may be an intricate chain of causation,
which may be difficult to predict before a law is made or difficult to detect
after a law is made.
412
Put simply, the following complication can occur. There
can be multiple causes. These can be both legal and non legal. They can also
be separate and independent on the one hand or joint and interacting causes on
the other hand. There can be multiple effects. Both causes and effects can be
hidden or at least difficult to discern.
Let us illustrate this by the following diagram. This diagram uses Statute X as
an illustration. Statute X causes the group of effects that are labelled Effect X
in the simple version of the model of legislative options. Statute X causes
effects, but two other social factors, features or phenomena also cause effects
in the area of life where Statute X operates. These are labelled Factor 1 and
Factor 2:
Factor 1
Effect X.2A
Effect X.3A
Effect X.nA
Effect X.2A
Statute X
Effect X.1
Effect X.2B
Effect X.3B
Effect X.nB
Factor 2
?
Figure 13.2 Continuation of Effects
This diagram shows that Statute X causes an initial effect, Effect X.1. Effect
X.1 leads to Effect X.2 but the picture is complicated in two ways by two or
more causes or by two or more effects. Thus there are two strands to Effect
___________________
411
Rosemary Neil “Conversation Piece” The Weekend Australian Review
13-14
December 2008
412
For example, when A supplies heroin to B who uses it there is a chain of
causation on each side. There is the chain of supply and the causes operating
there, starting with growing the opium poppies and culminating in the sale of
heroin to the user. On the demand side, the last step in the chain is B’s taking
heroin. This demand for heroin may have a causal chain involving a number of
social, familial and personal factors. On one view, for example, the familial factors
may go back for generations and involve maladaptive behaviour that is learnt in
the family.
 |
 |
 |