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"When fugitives flee...crime victims are denied justice." (from Interpol's blurb about fugitives) I thought the criminal corrections system was about rehabilit
by jluxenberg 16y ago
"When fugitives flee...crime victims are denied justice."
(from Interpol's blurb about fugitives)
I thought the criminal corrections system was about rehabilitation, not Hammurabi-style eye-for-an-eye justice.
- nano81 16y agoThere are several reasons for having a criminal justice system; rehabilitation is but one. Others include deterring crime, incapacitating dangerous violent offenders to separate them from society, and yes, offering a sense of retribution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_law#Objectives_of_Criminal_Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_law#Objectives_of_Crim...
- ceejayoz 16y agoYou seem to be confusing revenge with justice. A fugitive is hardly getting rehabilitated.
- hugh3 16y agoWell, you thought wrong. Or rather, you thought what a few squishy-minded idealists like to think. But that's not really what the criminal justice system is about. The desire to revenge ourselves upon those who do us wrong is a perfectly natural and normal part of human nature -- as natural as curiosity or love. If you've ever been the victim of a crime or another injustice you'll know the strength of the feeling. Where there is no functioning criminal justice system, private vengeange is a major problem, often tearing societies apart in murderous generations-long feuds. So as a major part of civilization, we outsource our revenge to the state, allowing victims to gain satisfaction against their attackers in an ordered and sensible way. Deterrence of future crimes, temporary removal of criminals from the streets, rehabilitation of bad people into good people (which, incidentally, hardly ever happens) -- these are all secondary goals. The primary goal is to enable our natural human thirst for vengeance to be satisfied in a neat and controlled way.