4 ms·
It's not clear that giving a criminal a second chance by not reporting him is compassionate. It may be compassionate to that individual but at the expense of hi
by lopmotr 6y ago
It's not clear that giving a criminal a second chance by not reporting him is compassionate. It may be compassionate to that individual but at the expense of his potential future victims. It's favoring the interests of the closer people over of the interests of strangers and is generally a selfish way to behave.
Unless you believe the justice system is wrong and nobody who does that crime should be convicted for it. In that case, it's standing up for what you believe in at the only opportunity you have to do so.
- michaelmrose 6y agoThis is an astute observation and well demonstrates how challenging moral decisions can be.
- c22 6y agoIt's pretty clear that reporting a first time criminal, at least in America, is all but guaranteed to cement their life of crime and ensure there are future victims. Not because the justice system is wrong in what it punishes, but because it is wrong in how it addresses these sorts of problems. Deploying some compassion in an attempt to short circuit this demented cycle doesn't sound selfish to me. It sounds like the only civic thing to do.
- cglace 6y agoYou're assuming a lot of things. 1) That jail time will prevent long term future victims (it won't) 2) That jail will rehabilitate him (it won't) 3) That being compassionate will cause him to commit more crimes. In this case it did, however, I believe this is a pretty big outlier.