I am troubled by the tendency in our culture to punish the criminal, because of the severity of the consequence of a crime, instead of the severity of the crime itself.
I think this mindset is as a result of religious influence - "eye for an eye" and so on - and hope we can progress beyond this somehow.
Consider the following, (happened in Australia not long ago):
A woman is convicted of manslaughter because she, whilst driving drunk, killed someone. She is doing time.
Now if someone else is convicted of just drunk driving the sentence is just a slap on the wrist by comparison.
The crime is the same but the punishment not, because the consequence is not. So we are punishing the consequences of a crime, not the severity of the crime itself.
I think this mindset is as a result of religious influence - "eye for an eye" and so on - and hope we can progress beyond this somehow.
Consider the following, (happened in Australia not long ago):
A woman is convicted of manslaughter because she, whilst driving drunk, killed someone. She is doing time.
Now if someone else is convicted of just drunk driving the sentence is just a slap on the wrist by comparison.
The crime is the same but the punishment not, because the consequence is not. So we are punishing the consequences of a crime, not the severity of the crime itself.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1U7CK1L
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