[sam0x17]

I've always felt very alone in my view on this, so don't feel bad if you disagree with me because most people probably do, but I just feel super morally icky when I hear about how part of our justice system is built around "retribution" / "vindication". Like it is one thing to punish, it is quite another to allow others to derive some sort of satisfaction from that punishment, even if they were victims, I just find it sick. It means as a society we are no better than the perpetrators at the end of the day.

[pinkmuffinere]

> it is quite another to allow others to derive some sort of satisfaction from that punishment

I sometimes see this behavior in close friends, and it totally changes the way I see them. I don't know if it's a moral failing on their part, but I just don't experience the desire for vengeance the same way they do, and it really scares me to see how they experience it. What will they do when they start to have mental decline, and (incorrectly) decide they were wronged in some way? :(

[worthless-trash]

I think this thought process is something that only people who have never been wronged can afford. There comes a time in life where the punishment must fit the crime, even if its only to make an example of the criminal.

Life is hard enough, we should deter crimes at every possibility, people are rarely punished for every evil they commit.

[Macha]

I was mugged as a teenager, and my house was burned down as an adult because a drug dealer lived on the same street.

Does that count me as sufficiently wronged to not be dismissed for sharing the parent posters viewpoint?

[worthless-trash]

If it doesn't.. it wasnt.

[sam0x17]

See this is my point though, it shouldn't matter what has happened to you, if that matters, then this is 100% emotional and not based on reason or justice.

[worthless-trash]

You're right. Justice should be served with reason and justice, at the moment it is served with far too much compassion for the criminal.

[rkomorn]

You're definitely not alone and I 100% share the thought in your last sentence.