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Authored by: Wol on Friday, February 08 2013 @ 04:33 PM EST |
There's also a lot of evidence that restitutive justice is actually a very harsh
punishment.
The first punishment should be to make criminals "put things right".
And as I've said, that apparently hurts. Seriously. The vandal who had to
repaint his victim's living room - "she was so grateful I was doing
decorating for her - she was like my nan". Or the young reckless driver,
who killed his best mate in a crash, visiting schools with his wrecked car on a
trailer.
Then, the majority of criminal behaviour is youngsters showing off, so
restoration - putting them back on the straight and narrow - should come second.
It's not that difficult, it's usually lads, and once a girl comes on the scene
they want to go straight. We shouldn't be so eager to criminalise typical
juvenile behaviour, even if we do find it offensive.
*Lastly* should come retribution. That is where we lock up icorrigible criminals
and throw away the key. But one gets the feeling that the American system thinks
this is the correct response to a first offence, and also tries to turn
everything into an offence.
(Going back to Victorian London, a lot of people know that you could be hanged
for stealing a loaf of bread. But what most people miss is that - pretty much
without exception except murder - hanging was only for repeat offences. Usually
third strike or worse.)
Cheers,
Wol[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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