how is crime handled In your country?
do you feel this technique works as a deterrent in crime?
how do you feel about the way other countries handle crime?
how were you punished as a child?
how did you punish your own children?
did it work?
answer one or all.
please discuss.
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10 responses to “Crime and Punishment”
in my country we utilize the prison system, I think we are way too hyper-focused on punitive measures for those who commit crimes rather than rehabilitative measures, and black men are over-represented in the prison system. I think we need to take into consideration people’s cultures and backgrounds, environments they came from, when considering if they could be rehabilitated. additionally, we continue to punish the guilty after they serve time by preventing them from getting work and depending on the offense, student loans, and food stamps.
I disagree with how the philipino leader handles the war on drugs.
my punishment was being screamed at. sometimes my dad took a belt to us.
yes, it worked, but I feel like it was more like my makeup, too. I learned to be quiet and not make noise.
how is crime handled In your country?
You do something bad. You get caught. You are innocent before you are proven guilty. You defend yourself if you are innocent, and plead guilty, or negotiate punishment to provide cost savings in time and expense associated with prosecution
do you feel this technique works as a deterrent in crime?
It works for those who are not angry at society for being, from their perspective, given a fair shake in the first place,
how do you feel about the way other countries handle crime?
I’ll answer this, this way. I have walked up to police personnel to ask very specific questions to understand issues they could help me with. I have no fear in doing this. I am usually greeted with a smile because I think they can see I am not approaching in a threatening manner. As a matter of fact I did this just yesterday and I have also walked up to police personnel with my grandson with the purpose of introducing him to them so that he can recognize them as people he can trust. I would never do this in your country. Any encounter I have ever had with a person in a uniform, immigration at the airports and borders, driving along your highways, walking in public places. In all cases, their demeanour is incredibly aggressive. I understand that part of that is in response to the potential for real danger. anybody can have a gun. Far fewer people carry up here. while a police person would be prepared; they are not overly prepared because odds are in their favour that they are not hated.
how were you punished as a child?
If I did something stupid; I was yelled at and struck. Wooden spoon and spatula mostly, but belt on occasion. I never believed “this is going to hurt me more than its going to hurt you” line. I always deserved it though.
how did you punish your own children?
Remove privileges and talked very loud. Always had follow up conversations under calmer circumstances after the punishment. NEVER, EVER made any physical contact whatsoever.
did it work?
I’d say yes. We have had multiple people comment about how cool they think our kids are. I agree with them. I really like that they like each other and I like that they respect how their actions can have an effect on others. They always act accordingly. I’m proud of all of them in how they manage to maintain fairly broad perspectives.
Anecdote time. The police once called me to ask me where my son was. He was attending University in another city about 3 hours away. They told me if he didn’t come in for questioning voluntarily, a warrant would be issued for his arrest. I had to go pick him up, bring him in and then return him to school. I wasn’t allowed to be with him when he was questioned.
After the questioning, both the policeman and my son were laughing together as they chatted while approaching. The policeman was very polite, before and after the questioning. There was never a sense of feeling threatened. The misunderstanding had been clarified and it was in fact a very funny set of circumstances.
My family respects cops. We show it clearly in our interactions. If I get caught speeding. I take the punishment and try to learn from it. They have a tough job and when they can be respectful in the light of challenging circumstances; they totally deserve it.
I think there is less anger directed at cops up here and the crucible that is your country gives both sides in police/civilian relations, reasons to be wary of the other.
@spitfire3dc I am sorry about your family of origins method of punishment. to me that is sad. I understand what you say about respect, but I think it goes both ways and we have to think about white privilege, and those that are born the color of a stigma. thanks for your response. it was interesting to read.
@Scarlett No need to feel sorry. I think I turned out ok. I was never really hit to cause injury. I think it was more just shock value and only on my padded parts. While I don’t necessarily agree with corporal punishment; it did reinforce something in me that is not uncomfortable with respecting authority.
America has gone soft on crime and it’s time the tide were turned.
@immortal_pirate Soft on crime in the US?
U.S. locks people up at a higher rate than any other country in the world. Where we are soft is locking up White Collar criminals, and white males.
@immortal_pirate this is not a thing I believe. I believe in the innate potential of all humans, even Donald trump
The country will do what it will do — and be blessed or damned for it. (Most exercises of jurisprudence seem produce more the latter — the point where some countries now need to arm their citizens with weapons designed specifically to end human life!)
I was raised with a sometimes over-strict substitutionary physical punishment, sufficient to give me serious pause if I ever contemplated going against the rules — which for the most part were designed to a) keep me safe and b) teach me respect for the society of which I was just a part.
Even with it going overboard into abuse in my case — often for mistaken or very inconsequential trespass — I can still see the value in one effective correction that “cures” the behaviour over dozens of ineffective ones that just harden a person to keep exploring paths of trespass they might “get away with”.
Lets chat about how different the media handles a crime when it’s a black or brown person as opposed to a white person. Example: The latest shooter from yesterday in Northern California, who rammed his car into an elementary school and shot at it. The latest, 5 dead, 10 injured; the shooter is dead. It took hours and hours before his name was released, and they only called him the shooter. It’s been almost 24 hours, the media list his name, but no photos, or a description of what he looks like. He is a White Male. If he was Black or Brown, his photo would be all over the place. And talks of a wall, immigration etc would be screamed out at us.
This is the shooter from yesterday. White male with blue eyes.
Let’s also look at how little compassion our president has. He just cut and pasted his response from the Texas church shooting for the latest shooting in Northern California on Twitter.
On Tuesday night, 11/15/17 Trump tweeted: