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> Any my original comment still stands: if you do that, you're going to punish more innocent people too. Is this a bad thing? Different courts also have differ

> Any my original comment still stands: if you do that, you're going to punish more innocent people too. Is this a bad thing? Different courts also have different standards of proof. Are you saying that you should have to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt in civil court? If your friend tells you an acquaintance said something mean to them, are you going to gather evidence and do cross-examinations before you'll believe them?

westoncb 7y ago
> Is this a bad thing? There is some optimal standard for any class of cases. (At the very least varying the standard will produce better/worse results in relation to particular classes of cases.) So, no— > are you going to gather evidence and do cross-examinations before you'll believe them? —that would be a very bad choice of standard. I have not claimed to know what the optimal choice of standard is (I will claim that no one else knows it either though), but I do think that changing the standard would have a huge societal impact, and so it shouldn't be done on the basis of a hunch that the outcome would be better. I pointed out one possible complication (convicting more innocent people), though of course the possibilities there are endless. So to be absolutely clear: I am not advocating for a tighter standard, I'm suggesting that there are complications entailed in lowering it, so it should only be done on a much firmer grounding than some vague notions about catching more bad guys.