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Post by Big Lin on Aug 15, 2010 21:57:03 GMT
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Beth
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Post by Beth on Aug 22, 2010 0:41:40 GMT
The current case that is attracting the most attention in regard to alternative punishment is in Saudi Arabia. In the course of a fight, a man hit another with a meat cleaver and severed his spine, leaving him paralyzed. He has been sentenced to 7 months in prison for the crime. However, the judge in the case has been investigating the possibility of having his spine operated on with the intention of leaving him in a similar condition as his victim. Islamic law apparently allows for this kind of "equivalent punishment". Amnesty International has urged Saudi authorities to stop any attempt to medically paralyse a man as a judicial punishment. An account is here - BBC News |
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Beth
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Post by Beth on Aug 22, 2010 0:43:30 GMT
This sounds like the old "eye for an eye" punishment that some fundamentalist Christians still lean toward.
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Post by Big Lin on Aug 22, 2010 21:16:28 GMT
Obviously there are many different types of alternative punishments.
I've read an interesting online article by a guy who thinks that for most minor crimes flogging would be a better answer than prison.
There are lots of ways in which community service could be made far more challenging and constructive than it generally is.
On the specific issue of the Saudi case, it's obvious that what the bloke did to the victim was horrific.
It's rather like the Iranian woman who was blinded by acid and whose attacker was then blinded in the same way.
I'm not sure how I feel about stuff like that.
On one level I find it a bit dodgy and on another I can understand how it maybe helps the victims or the family of the victims to feel a bit better.
I know sometimes retribution can be a bit vengeful but then again sometimes it's the only way.
Need to think about this case!
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Beth
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Post by Beth on Aug 23, 2010 3:36:16 GMT
One alternative form of punishment that is often used for less serious crimes (never murder I don't believe) is house arrest .. also called electronic monitoring and home detention. For clarity, here's a bit of the wiki entry and a link to the rest. --- Home detention provides an alternative to imprisonment and aims to reduce re-offending while also coping with expanding prison numbers and rising costs.[1] It allows eligible offenders to retain or seek employment, maintain family relationships and responsibilities and attend rehabilitative programs that contribute towards addressing the causes of their offending. The terms of house arrest can differ, but offenders are rarely confined to their residence 24 hours a day. Most programs allow employed offenders to continue to work, and only confine them during non-working hours. Offenders are also commonly allowed to leave their homes for specific, predetermined purposes; examples can include visits to the probation officer or police station, religious exceptions and medical appointments.[2] Many programs also allow the convict to leave the residence during regular, pre-approved times in order to carry out general household errands such as food shopping and laundry. Offenders may also have to respond to communications from a higher authority to verify that they are at home when required to be. Exceptions are often made to allow visitors to visit the offender. [3] There are several types of house arrest, varying in severity as to the requirements of the court order. A curfew may restrict an offender to their house at certain times, usually during hours of darkness. Home confinement or detention would require an offender to remain at home for most hours, apart from the above mentioned exceptions. The most serious is home incarceration which would constrain an offender to their home constantly, aside from court-sanctioned treatment programmes and medical appointments.[1] In some exceptional cases, it is possible for a person to be placed under house arrest without trial or legal representation, with restrictions on who they can associate with.[4] In some countries this has led to criticism, in which it is argued that this type of detention breaches the offender's human rights.[5] In countries with authoritarian systems of government, such measures may be politically motivated to stifle dissent. --- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_arrest |
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Post by beez0811 on Aug 29, 2010 1:34:07 GMT
This sounds like the old "eye for an eye" punishment that some fundamentalist Christians still lean toward. "An eye for an eye" means that if someone stabbed your eye, that person's eye gets stabbed and nothing more. |
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Beth
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Post by Beth on Aug 29, 2010 17:28:57 GMT
This sounds like the old "eye for an eye" punishment that some fundamentalist Christians still lean toward. "An eye for an eye" means that if someone stabbed your eye, that person's eye gets stabbed and nothing more. I think you're right in the original context, but it's come to mean equal retribution. Here are a couple of links that extend the root meaning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_eye_for_an_eye At the root of this principle is that one of the purposes of the law is to provide equitable retribution for an offended party. It defined and restricted the extent of retribution in the laws of the Torah. In modern times, the phrase still loosely applies. Should a person commit a tort that results in personal injury of the plaintiff, they must pay for the repairing of the injury (e.g. an eye transplant). This is called compensatory damages. The English word talion means a punishment identical to the offense, from the Latin talio. The principle of "an eye for an eye" is often referred to using the Latin phrase lex talionis, the law of talion. also www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/31800.html"An ee for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" Meaning The notion that for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of justice. Origin From the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was King of Babylon, 1792-1750BC. The code survives today in the Akkadian language. Used in the Bible, Matthew 5:38 |
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