Quote:
Originally Posted by skizziks
If he blinded and scarred her, then it seems quite just, quite fair, that he too be blind and scarred. Would you suggest he be reprimanded harshly, taught that his actions were wrong, "rehabilitated" so he could go on with his life and she gets to live blind and scarred? How is that social harmony?
|
It isn't quite so easy. It seems things were lost in your glossing. The punishment should fit the crime, of course--debt to society, and all that. Before I explain, let me put your thoughts a different way: If we blind and scar the criminal, the victim is still blind and scarred. But now there are two sets of families and friends who must bear the burden of having a loved one who has survived and must live after such a violent experience. This too fails to re-establish harmony, and has only increased suffering. (I will leave out, for the moment, the wider practical and ethical concerns in regard to a mode of social/governmental punishment that practices an eye for an eye.)
What is more just, then? In my opinion, it would be more just to punish the criminal in such a way that both attempts to rehabilitate him and forces him to improve the life of the victim and the well-being of his community. This can be done through payable damages, community service, etc. Payable damages can be sums of money (I don't know anyone who can't use money). Community service can include anything from picking up litter to helping the homeless find work and a place to live, helping feed the impoverished, or working with at-risk kids to prevent them from becoming criminals themselves...or a number of other important jobs that work to widely improve a community. We see this happening in Western courts. I'm not sure how this works in religious or other courts that may differ from ours.
So you have a choice:
- Eye for an eye...make the criminal suffer as did his victim.
- A punishment that forces the criminal to pay assets to the victim and to perform a certain requirement of community service (even if it is while incarcerated). Also, if it is fitting, make him take courses or enter programs to help change his negative behaviour.
Tell me, what would serve best to restore harmony to the community?