| | Punishment only has 2 possible virtues: deterrence effect to the criminal and others in the future, and for revenge (ie, to make the victim feel better).
Studies have been done which suggest that the certainty of capture overwhelmingly deters future crime more effectively than the severity of punishment. This makes sense, since most criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot, who go for the easy score of convenience, not the elaborate plan so popularized by movies. If everyone gets caught, or caught often, people will tend not to do it, whatever "it" is.
Revenge is good because it prevents lawlessness and vigilante justice.
We are on a definite trend towards people failing to understand the importance of the presumption of innocence, the right to privacy, the right to be free from unreaseonable search and seizure. Before too long, these rights may be forfeit, sacrificed to the desire to catch all of the criminals. Unfortunately, justice systems the world over have shown themselves more efficient at falsely accusing, convicting, and punishing innnocent people than deterring future crime.
I agree that there may be truth to the notion that poverty and desperation account for alot of crime. It certainly accounts for the billions made in the illegal drug trade, and usually accounts for violent crimes, as well. Do yourself a favor and sit in a criminal Court one day, and observe the education level and thinking capacities of criminals.
This is my basis for supporting rehabilitation as an admirable goal. Mind you, a slap on the hand is the most effective and direct message to a wrongdoer to knock it off, and I may be the world's greatest proponent of it (esp if you read my response on the child-reariung threads). But if you are going to create human warehouses of people who were never bright enough to find reason and productivity on their own, it wouldn't hurt to give them a crash course and a new lease on life for when they get out. But then again, I am not and never have been a huge fan of prisons, especially run as the rape centers that they are allowed to be.
As I have said before, the FIRST reform we need is an honest to God authoritarian to revamp the prison system to make it safe for prisoners, and not an asylum run by the lunatics. Like any government-run program, it could be done better, cheaper, privately, and maybe that is part of the answer.
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