Whats your opinion of crime and the best punishment for it?
I'm from South Africa and crime is out of control. Our government doesn't want to bring the death penalty back. I think that if they did bring it back it would lessen crime. Just a thought
Answers:
I was pro-death penalty for a long time, but I have changed my stance over the years, for several reasons:
1. By far the most compelling is this: Sometimes the legal system gets it wrong. Look at all the people who have been released after years of imprisonment because they were exonerated by DNA evidence. Unfortunately, DNA evidence is not available in most cases. No matter how rare it is, the government should not risk executing one single innocent person.
Really, that should be reason enough for most people. If you need more, read on:
2. Because of the extra expense of prosecuting a DP case and the appeals process (which is necessary - see reason #1), it costs taxpayers MUCH more to execute prisoners than to imprison them for life.
3. The deterrent effect is questionable at best. In the U.S., violent crime rates are actually higher in death penalty states. This may seem counterintuitive, and there are many theories about why this is (Ted Bundy saw it as a challenge, so he chose Florida – the most active execution state at the time – to carry out his final murder spree). Personally, I think it has to do with the hypocrisy of taking a stand against murder…by killing people. The government becomes the bad parent who says, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’
4. There’s also an argument to be made that death is too good for the worst of our criminals. Let them wake up and go to bed every day of their lives in a prison cell, and think about the freedom they DON’T have, until they rot of old age. When Ted Bundy was finally arrested in 1978, he told the police officer, “I wish you had killed me.”
5. Government ought to be secular, but for those who invoke Christian law in this debate, you can find arguments both for AND against the death penalty in the Bible. For example, Matthew 5:38-39 insists that violence shall not beget violence. James 4:12 says that God is the only one who can take a life in the name of justice. Leviticus 19:18 warns against vengeance (which, really, is what the death penalty amounts to). In John 8:7, Jesus himself says, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Before you decide on anything, you first must remove all liberals from power.
crime is crap and whatever crime you commit should be done to you, like if you rape someone you get raped.
just personal prison.
Eye for and Eye, tooth for a tooth. I read that in a book somewhere.
If it makes you feel better, crime and enforcement is a joke in the U.S. I think restitution to the victims should be part of the punishment as well as the criminal being able to be held civilly liable to the victim for damages, pain and suffering etc...
mandatory sentencing
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