[NamTaf]

Why should we not treat people who make mistakes like humans if they show genuine remose and a desire to reform, such as this guy or e.g.: Kevin Mitnick? The justice system is supposed to be (in most countries, at least) to be a method of both punishment and rehibilitation. Why not find ways to assist them in completing the latter?

I don't think it's particularly farfetched to expect relatively socially ostracised teenaged boys to not make the best judgement decisions right as they are developing their computer science skills. Most of them end up becoming relatively well-adjusted (within the scope of an introverted computer nerd) people so why not help them in that development?

[pekk]

Why should we not start with black guys instead of making special exceptions for white kids committing "white collar" crimes? Why does the involvement of computers make some criminals better than others?

[LukeB_UK]

I see nothing in what NamTaf said that means we should be 'making special exceptions for white kids committing "white collar" crimes'. To me they're saying that we should treat anyone as a human if they show genuine remorse and a desire to change. This could apply to any crime committed by any race, any age and any gender.

The fact that you throw the race card down so quickly when it comes to a discussion about crime concerns me.

[garric]

He's not saying that we shouldn't. But the U.S. is overwhelmingly focused on punishment, retribution, and incapacitation rather than rehabilitation. Essentially victim blaming, if you want to look at it like that. Opinion: It's going to take system-wide reform to accomplish anything meaningful.

[NamTaf]

I was specifically trying to avoid making a judgement on particular nations' systems because I didn't particularly want to bring that in to it. You are right however and that's touched on in the article, where the German federal police say that he was lucky they got to him before their US equivalents did. The US system is far more punitive than many European equivalents.

[paulhauggis]

so..a person that murders an innocent person is now a victim?

some people are past the point of rehabilitation and should be in prison.

[Jtsummers]

> some people are past the point of rehabilitation and should be in prison.

If we made a serious effort of rehabilitation in the US penal system, then this might be fair. We don't. Prisoners, especially those who commit the crimes in their youth, are screwed under our current system. The younger criminals, like their non-criminal youth counterparts, just don't know or don't appreciate the options available to them regarding education and learning trade skills. We put them into an environment with other people we've given up on and somehow expect that when they get out a year or a decade later they'll be ready to reintegrate into society. They didn't have the skill set going in, and they won't have it coming out. Many of them will continue to live on the fringes of our society, perhaps making a meager living as unskilled laborers. Others will fall into a crowd that keeps them involved in crime or other "antisocial", or however you want to describe it, behavior.

[tfigment]

As harsh as this sounds, I agree. My brother is my personal example. He had 4-5 chances at rehabilitation. First it was small stuff like pawning my mom's jewelry then it was breaking and entering to the neighbors or my dad's truck or whatever as I've not heard all of the charges. The system gave him several breaks and it would last 6 months (or less) before he was at it again each time worse than the last. I am only grateful that he is in for the next 20 years so he cannot be even worse. Also as a juvenile the book was not thrown at him and was always released back to custody of my father who was very welcoming and tried his best but some people are beyond hope.

The only good thing that came from him was my nieces and even they didn't really turn out that great due to probably a twisted childhood and weird relation with dad.

[lmm]

Because violent crime is, uh, worse than non-violent crime? Because it harms others more directly, and because the second-order effects of living in a society where violent crime happens are much worse than those of living in a society where white-collar crime happens?

[buttscicles]

Violence wasn't mentioned at all

[im3w1l]

Let me cite another comment.

"I felt for this guy, because it could easily have happened to me,"

This doesn't explain why we ought treat these crimes as different. But it does explain why we do treat them different. I think.

[vezzy-fnord]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation

"What about the people wrongfully on death row?"