Is punishment for crime really the best approach?

[Allegra]

Some people are able to and do change though, if they were violent as a young person, there is no guarantee they will remain violent their entire lives, its up to the person and how they develop. If they are sent to prison for the rest of their lives though, this does not take possible change into consideration.

As our understanding of the human mind increases, we should be able to determine if someone is truly changed or not, making prison sentences uniform for every single person is really kind of ridiculous, every person is different.

I don’t think they are uniform though. Judges take all sorts of things into consideration when assigning prison terms and so do parole boards. I think there’s some room for flexibility between life in prison and paying the guy not to do it again.

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

I think what we need to do is clean up the lead across our countries whether it be in pipes or in paint on walls as lead has been shown to cause crime and also to increase mental health funding as certain types of mental illness as we seem to be filling up prisons with the mentally ill.

 

[mikekle]

I think what we need to do is clean up the lead across our countries whether it be in pipes or in paint on walls as lead has been shown to cause crime and also to increase mental health funding as certain types of mental illness as we seem to be filling up prisons with the mentally ill.

That is a good point. I think in the future, as they learn more about how our minds work, they will discover what causes some people to have criminal urges. I watched a PBS show about the human brain awhile back and they found major differences in brain functions between life long criminals and non-criminals.

If they can figure out ways to alter or treat our brains in this regard, they may be able to change someones behavior for the good, but our world likes to punish people, they love to see people get caught and locked up for life. If a persons criminal urges could be stopped, there would not be much of a need for the law enforcement industry.

Similar to what they are finding about drug addiction now, its actually a disease of the mind, but our LE world is still treating it as criminal, people call police when they see drug activity, they dont think to call medical help or the CDC (who should really take over this fight from LE), then they go out and arrest people who sell or use these drugs, sort of like in medieval times when they would go out and arrest people with mental illnesses, thankfully we no longer do that as we know better, but it takes awhile for all of us to get on the same page I guess.

 

[Brendan]

I like the ideas of Restorative justice, where a person learns to account and take responsibility for their mistakes, giving them the opportunity to change themselves and become better people.

I thought the old Eye for an Eye, retributive forms were supposed to go out with Christ’s message…

I’m not too sure that I can reconcile your statement with St. Paul’s

Romans 13:2-4

Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.
3
For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it,
4
for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer

 

[o_mlly]

Salvete, omnes!

I heard a TV news story earlier today that got me thinking. The story basically involved a town whose crime rate was quite high and whose gun crime rate was caused by in large by only about twenty or so people. The city thought that, instead of incarcerating these 20 people, it would track them down and pay them money to enroll in a therapy program … According to the news story, a considerable percentage of the people who enrolled in the therapy … did not go on to commit further gun crimes. …

The state has a primary obligation to protect the community. Anything less than a 100% success rate of such a program would mean the state failed in its primary obligation.

 

[mikekle]

The state has a primary obligation to protect the community. Anything less than a 100% success rate of such a program would mean the state failed in its primary obligation.

And laws are put in place to protect the community/ society, but has any law ever been 100% successful, even close? It seems our current method is the best thing we have come up with so far though, maybe one day someone will come along with a better idea?

 

[Ender]

So, again, I ask the question: Would the method of paying people not to commit crime actually be a better method than the traditional one of punishment and even one God Himself would advocate over punishment, or not?

I think you have two issues here that need to be addressed separately. One is how punishment should be applied to those who have committed crimes, and the other is what can be done to reduce the number of crimes committed in the first place.

Regarding prevention, I have no practical suggestions, but I would not be opposed to creative approaches. As for punishment, however, the situation is not nearly so cloudy. Punishment is necessary inasmuch as *“punishment is the effect of justice.” *(Aquinas) Without punishment there is no justice. Now, we may debate what constitutes an appropriate and effective punishment, but we cannot simply eliminate it or make it symbolic only.

Nor is it true that “the old Eye for an Eye, retributive forms were supposed to go out with Christ’s message” (Lynxdk). Retribution (retributive justice) is still the primary objective of punishment, nor has the church ever repudiated it. Quite the opposite:*when Our Lord says: “You have heard that it hath been said of old, an eye for an eye, etc.,” He does not condemn that law, nor forbid a magistrate to inflict the poena talionis, but He condemns the perverse interpretation of the Pharisees, and forbids in private citizens the desire for and the seeking of vengeance. For God promulgates the holy law that the magistrate may punish the wicked by the poena talionis; whence the Pharisees infer that it is lawful for private citizens to seek vengeance; *(St. Bellarmine)

poena talionis - retaliatory punishment
Ender

 

[pnewton]

Punishment for crime is needed. However, that punishment does not necessarily need to be incarceration. Community service is one alternative, as it repayment. There are two classes of crimes (and criminals) which need special attention. The violent criminal does need to be separated out from society for the protection of society. There are some that have so sown to the wind that all that can be done is to separate them and pray for God’s mercy.

The second class of crime that deserves due consideration is drug offenses. By any objective measure our war on drugs is an abysmal failure. We have done nothing but drive up the price of illegal narcotics which has lead to more ruthless criminals and more local street crime to finance these narcotics. We need to take a new approach, decriminalizing a lot of offenses and direct the money use toward rehabilitation.