From: Max M (maxm@maxmcorp.dk)
Date: Thu Nov 26 1998 - 03:04:03 MST
From: John Clark <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
>Hash: SHA1
> >>Me:
> >>Just punishment for an evil act is the minimum action needed to
prevent
> >>a future similar occurrence, anything more than that is revenge.
>
> >Dick Gray:
> >First off, studies have called into question the deterrence value of
sanctions,
>
>If punishment didn't deter anyone then I can see no reason for punishing
anyone
>for anything, at least no reason I'd want to defend.
I shure do believe that punishment is a deterence. You CAN learn by pain.
But probably only what not to do. Try to make a kid stick a nail into a wall
socket. The next time you try to make them do it they wil be much harder to
persuade. ;-) At least I remember that I only did it once.
It's just that it works best for certain types of crime. Some of the recent
litterature that I have read regarding consciousnes and behaviour seems to
suggest that we act on impulse in many situations. To not do a crime we have
to pre-program our brain not to act on certain impulses. Probably crimes of
passion, or done in a moments rage is much harder to control, especially if
you haven't conditioned yourself not to do them.
One of the problems with carrying a weapon is that when you decide to carry
it you also decide to use it in certain situations, and thus are not
conditioned not to do it. Indeed people carrying weapons takes pride in
being willing to use them. Why else carry a weapon? This makes for a bigger
risk of a weapon being used.
One way to uncondition people from carrying weapons would be to make the
carrying of illegal weapons a serious crime. It would give the police a
better tool for locking up criminals carrying weapons.
(I'm not trying to start that weapons debate again. I am talkíng about what
I think will work here in Denmark where weapons are almost only carried by
criminals, and practically nobody wants them legalised.)
If you got +4 years just for carrying a weapon maybe you would think twice
about bringing it in the first place. Thus conditioning yourself for less
severe solutions.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Max M Rasmussen, New Media Director http://www.normik.dk Denmark
# Private mailto:maxm@maxmcorp.dk http://www.maxmcorp.dk
TheWorld =~ s/Microsoft Corporation//g;
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