Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
> Carrol, despite his crankiness, is really very nice amd
> would have no truck with pedophiles, etc.; he just thinks--I think
> naively--that there wouldn't be any people like that under socialism, or not
> any who couldn't be dealt with by a stern talking to.
Actully I've never given a thought to this question. And I presume any social order takes whatever steps are necessary, under given conditions, to protect itself. It is punishment, which is just a polite name for revenge, that I object to. I agree with Orwell that under some circumstances you can achieve good results by killing people, but if one must kill, it ought not to be for such an obscene reason as punishment.
Most murderers never repeat the crime -- which is why southern governors, when they used convicts as servants, so often chose murderers as among the safer convicts. Hence for preventive purposes, even a good talking to would not be necessary to prevent repetition of the crime. Purely economic crime would undoubtedly be greatly reduced. And we can leave it to the future how trouble-makers would be dealt with. But as I said in my original post, it's not socialism I'm talking about but current policy -- and what the policies a revolutionary (or serious reform) movement should support inside capitalism.
My private guess is that eliminating the criminal justice system would add a few tens of thousands to the number of crimes committed yearly -- and subtract several hundred thousand. I.e., crime prevention and punishment does prevent some crimes, but it creates more crimes than it prevents.
Carrol