career criminalism

[Walsingham]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...don/6929285.stm

 

For some years now the thought has been fermenting in me that two very distinct types of person appear before the criminal justice system. Some persons, even murderers and other serious offenders, commit one crime, or perhaps two or three lesser ones. There are other persons, however, usually well known to the police, who commit many crimes, and clusters of crimes, like the gentlemen shown above.

 

My principle reaction is that we over-punish and incarcerate the former, and do far too little too late to the latter. Which, naturallly, poses a problem to the notion of a single justice system for all.

[Gorth]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...don/6929285.stm

 

For some years now the thought has been fermenting in me that two very distinct types of person appear before the criminal justice system. Some persons, even murderers and other serious offenders, commit one crime, or perhaps two or three lesser ones. There are other persons, however, usually well known to the police, who commit many crimes, and clusters of crimes, like the gentlemen shown above.

 

My principle reaction is that we over-punish and incarcerate the former, and do far too little too late to the latter. Which, naturallly, poses a problem to the notion of a single justice system for all.

Umm... wouldn't that guy belong in both the former and latter category and therefore can't be punished enough?

 

If he had been a petty thief, fence, small time pub brawler, then I would have considered him the latter. Make him pay for damages and beat him with a stick in the town square (20 lashes should do). Premeditated assault and murder should result in quartering or the wheel, or perhaps just impaling?

 

Edit: Ok, just exaggerating, but I think low level crime will always be a costly nuisance and should be kept low. If the police started spending their budget on chasing parking offenses and bicycles without lights instead of Subway bomb men, the outrage would be audible all the way down here.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Gorth

[theslug]

I think they do the whole making an example of someone who commits a crime for the first or second time so that they don't continue committing crimes. You let them off with a slap on the wrist and they might get the wrong idea.

[Pop]

There are some crimes, sadistic or sexual in nature, that more often than not speak to a pathological problem. Rates of recidivism among sex offenders are abnormally high.

[Walsingham]

As usual in this area, I'm inclined to agree with Pop. I don't believe that career criminals are deterred by any amount of lashings. I believe that it would be much more sensible to have a unit of the police and judiciary whose job it was to do in-depth studies of such persons and closely monitor tehir behaviour, ultimately having the power to recommend incarceration for lengthy periods for the protection of society.

 

I don't know why I mentioned the immigrant issue. Perhaps because this can be pathological, and the sad fact is that many young male immigrants have come to us as th perpetrators of crimes in their countries of origin.