let the punishment fit the crime.

let the punishment fit the crime

shadowkid, i am mad because instead of rationally stating your points you call me names and insinuate that my opinions have no worth. believe it or not most people DONT agree with me. but i have every right to my opinion and it doesnt make me 'right' but it doesn't make you right either. i think i have stated my opinions rationally in this thread and i don't know why you have to make a fight out of it. if you feel so attacked just by someone having different opinions then maybe you need to rethink your own?

also "an eye for an eye" is barbaric and civilized countries do not practice it. ever heard that little saying of gandhi's?

Post deleted by jacobtk

Perhaps my comments were over the top for most of you guys, cuz I like to read about the origins of our current legal system. I would like to clarify what I was talking about.

Before "modern" court systems arose, they had NO connection with the governments they presided in. The judges in those courts could not use police, troops, or prisons to enforce decisions.

In those days, if someone harmed another citizen, they judge would order the criminal to make restitution to the victim, (via money or labor or assets.) If the criminal refused, then the judge would then use the procedure called "outlawry."

Under outlawry, the judge would say to the criminal "We cannot enforce the law onto you, but since you do not accept the responsibilities of the law, neither shall you have its protections. From now on your legal status shall be no different from that of a rabbit or any other wild animal outside the law."

If you're still reading this: What this meant was the anyone that refused to obey the judge would be publicized, and then ANYONE, ANYONE could hunt him down and enslave him, kill him, or anything else he wished to do to him. What happened to the criminal was no concern to the courts after the criminal refused to obey the courts decisions. The victim could also hire a bounty hunter to capture the criminal and sell him as a slave, etc.

What's my point about this Common Law theme? It comes down to Restitution. Today, when a criminal harms another person, our courts, in their infinite wisdom, assume that he owes a debt to "society" INSTEAD of to the victim. So the criminal ends up making license plates or office furniture for the state, and EVERYONE else, including the VICTIM, has to pay taxes to SUPPORT his time in a state owned prison.

Under Common Law, the offender's debt was to his victim, His obligation was to restore his victim as nearly as possible to the victim's original condition. This included paying the victim for all damages including time lost from work, court expenses, emotional stress, you name it.

I wish we had a purely Common Law system of courts today, but no, we're too "civilized" for that!

I disagree, Hauser. What do my perps "owe" me, that they could actually give or do? What can they do to "restore" my life in some way? What - money? No. I don't want to be PAID for my "services", thank you very much. I want these people put in a place where they cannot do anything without being watched; where their freedoms of movement and association are limited. And, where they can't be around kids anymore. Jail is a good place for that. And as "expensive" as housing inmates is to the taxpayer, when I reduce the cost to me personally, only something like $10 of MY OWN tax money over my entire lifetime will actually ever be given to a prison. Yeah, I can give $10. And if the government wants to farm them to make license plates, they can go ahead - that actually SAVES tax money.

I will second something jacobtk said, though - if it's widely known that abusing a child can get you executed, kids who know this, who still feel attachment to their abusers, would NEVER turn their perps in. Even when they're adults, if they don't believe in the death penalty (or don't believe it's warranted). That's a lot of perps walking.

What if the perp is your mom or dad, or once best friend???

A poor guy got locked up for four months just for touching
a child who was with her mother.
Even though witnesses in the store said nothing untoward happened.

Case was kicked out of court!

Too late, his neighbors will still think he is a kiddie fiddler,

ste

Perhaps I'm unique here, perhaps I'm the only one that's led an adult life of under-achievement, marginal employment, and little accomplished. My perp could have paid me money, and he could have been forced to make public service announcements on how he perped little boys and how to be safe from people like him, I could have made him do anything I wanted probably, given the gravity of the crime committed against me, had I Common Law backing me up.

I'm not trying to flog a dead horse here, but you're not just paying for YOUR perp, you're paying for all the other criminals in prison as well, many of which only committed crimes against the state (victim-less crimes), crimes in which they never hurt anyone else except possibly themselves, like drug possession and sale, prostitution, gambling, etc.) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/cases/

Perps ARE getting out of prison early to make room for people like this, but I digress.

im sorry i voiced my opinion ,but thats all i did

no, you voiced your opinion very abrasively, called me names and acted like i was stupid or insane for having my own opinion. you can state your opinion without attacking people and that in fact makes it a more effective argument.