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Comment by ulizzle

3 years ago

There are a lot of historical examples arguing for and against you. But murder and rape is far different than getting popped for heroin or selling weed and our laws already reflect that

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ulizzle

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zamalek  3 years ago

Rehabilitation is rehabilitation.

In contrast, the American system aims for penance, which is why we call it penetentiary. You have to "pay for your actions" - which has absolutely nothing to do with rehabilitation and preventing recidivism. Paying for your actions is deeply ingrained is the American zeitgeist - making the concept of favoring rehabilitation appear immoral.

Regardless, it could be argued that rehabilitating a perpetrator of more severe crimes is a harsher form of punitive justice. Living with your (newly acquired) guilt and regret about your actions is more difficult than hanging out with, and learning from, your peers in crime university - prison.

Also, selling heroin is often manslaughter.

Kye  3 years ago

What are the recidivism rates on those crimes like? Our laws often reflect misguided morals, not hard data. Justice is supposed to be blind. That's an ideal to reach for, not reject out of hand.

  • hu3  3 years ago

    https://smart.ojp.gov/somapi/chapter-5-adult-sex-offender-re...

    > Sexual recidivism rates range from 5 percent after three years to 24 percent after 15 years.

    Also, I wouldn't put murder and rape in the same sentence. There are some situations where murder reasoning might be debatable even if still wrong (self defense against and archenemy that promised to assassinate your family, for example).

    But rape? There's no rationalizing rape other than mental illness.

    I don't want to open a can of worms here, but I had to write this.

    • NikolaNovak  3 years ago

      I don't want to continue the can of terrifying worms :), but:

      * I agree that what most of us generally mean in colloquial usage of the term "rape" is never justifiable

      * However, in many jurisdictions, the legal definition of "rape" may be different and significantly broader than our colloquial usage. As an immediate example, a completely informed and consensual sexual experience between two teenagers may be considered "statutory rape", with all the prison, registered offender, difficulty getting a job and social stigma that follows a rape conviction. Whereas I personally don't think two teenagers having sex is indicative of mental illness.

      It sucks, but the longer I live, the less immediately easily categorizable or black & white things are :<

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    • concordDance  3 years ago

      Except rape has much lower recidivism than crimes like theft or murder.

      So someone who is a murderer is more likely to commit crimes when released than a rapist.