Match the punishment with the crime

[Ecthy]

I know. suxdunnit.

[Starchild]

Vivisection for all involved, including jury and judge.

[Sava]

I think corporate crime needs to have stiffer penalties. Somehow, stealing $400 became more of a crime than stealing $400 million.

[Urban Ranger]

There are three factors that should be considered: intent/motive, consequences, and mitigating factors.

1) a person steals 100$ from their boss.

2) a person steals 100$ from their boss but returns the money when they get caught.

Normally, probably just a social service order plus restitution, and no record for case 2. Of course, if the person hasn't eaten in 3 days because the boss has not paid him in months so he could buy something to eat, the boss would be in big trouble instead.

Would the punishment be different if the person stole 100,000$?

It depends. That $100,000 to his boss might be $1 to us.

3) a person is driving home and hits another car killing the person in the other car.

Nothing, it's an accident.

Would the punishment be different if the driver were drunk?

Yes, particularly if said accident could be avoided if the driver would remain sober.

4) a person intentionally kills their boyfriend/girlfriend because the other person was cheating on them.

Would the punishment be different if the victim were a spouse?

Murder, clear and simple. Life imprisionment without parole. [Acutally, it will be planting trees in the middle of a desert]

5) A guy gets a girl drunk and has sex with her. After the fact, she claims it was not consentual because she was drunk.

Depending on whether it was opportunistic or preplanned. 10 years for former, 25 years for the latter.

Would the punishment be different if hard drugs were involved?

What kind of drugs? Knockout drugs such as Roofie that has no purpose other than facilitate rape? Life imprisonment without parole. Other drugs, anywhere from 10 years and up.

6) A couple is filing for divorce. The husband is upset because his wife committed adultery. The wife admits to the adultery but says that her husband's addiction to porn drove her to it. Would you grant the divorce? If so, who would get custody of the children?

Granted. Further details required for custody of the children with their own wishes taken into acco****.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Sava
I think corporate crime needs to have stiffer penalties. Somehow, stealing $400 became more of a crime than stealing $400 million.

Or even worse selling $20 of drugs.

[Whaleboy]

What is this obsession with punishment? Its puny revenge based justice, it does no-one any good, except the vigilante instincts of the victim.

Lets try to be objective. If someone kills, then they have something wrong in their heads that needs to be fixed. Same with rape or kleptomania etc etc.

Only a miniscule proportion of the prison population needs to be. The rest can be out in society contributing, instead of burning resources in prison. Only those that are an incurable risk need to remain there for public safety etc. See my justice article.