> He obviously cannot be trusted.
> Why does it this author write it "feels good when we whack an offender"?
> "We" in the above statement implies our society at large rather than
> claiming he feels good when an offender is whacked or victims feel good
> when offenders are whacked.
> I can understand how it feels good for an victim, in limited
> circumstances, but as a society how do we benefit from punishment of crime?
What about punishment as retribution for unacceptable behavior? Yesterday I heard about a case where this guy had sex with his 14 year old mentally retarded nephew. Based on the limited facts I had access to, the victim didn't seem particularly damaged or harmed by what happened to him (the rest of the family was pretty upset though).
Now the uncle is serving a long stretch of time for rape -- not necessarily because the victim was hurt in any tangible way, but because it is socially unacceptable for adults to have sex with mentally retarded children. A prison term was deemed adequate retribution for this behavior. In other words, if you do certain things, you _deserve_ to be punished. Period.
Can't one say society "benefits" from realizing this principle?
-WD