Do you agree with me that if you break the law your rights should be forfeited.?

Question

Criminals should be treated as criminals and lose all their rights

For those who think criminals should have rights.... what about the right's of their victims. The 15 year old shot dead and the 2 year old raped and murdered what about their right to live.????????

Answer 1

Yes. If you commit any kind of crime it has an impact on other peoples human rights either directly or indirectly, depending on the crime, so why should your rights be left intact.
Losing your human rights should be one of the consiquences of being found guilty of a crime and it might help to be a deterrant because nothing else seems to work. Certainly not the softly, softly approach they use today.

Answer 2

You might want to go back to the original reasons for those rules about respecting human rights. It seems that what constitutes a criminal charge isn't always what you might think, things like murder, robbery, arson, sometimes its been used for political or religious reasons that laws are made or enforced. Even a laws enforcement can be done at the discretion of a ruling body. And even a criminal shouldn't be subject to torture because if he didn't do it he would say he did just to stop the pain. Allowing human rights to go by the wayside is an open invitation to sadistic behavior and that should never be encouraged. Felons right now lose their ability to vote and their record essentially insures they will never hold a decent job and of course the right of free association and to carry arms are not allowed. But what right would you want forfeited other than those that are already lost? A phone call? That's used before conviction, I'm assuming you would wait till the criminal is convicted before you...I don't know...brand him? Or didn't you realize that felons do lose some civil rights?
As to your example, of course the criminal has no right to kill, but that does not presuppose that the state has the right to act out of vengeance and not justice.

Answer 3

How do you know if he is a criminal, absent a guilty pleas or a trial?

If you run a stop sign, should you lose all of your rights? Are you then deemed a criminal? What magnitude of breaking the laws determine you should be a criminal, thus, losing all of your rights?

Even if you are found guilty, shouldn't the sentence match the crime?

To answer your question, no, I do not agree with you because the country was based upon people having certain inalienable rights; otherwise, we would be in Spanish Inquisition or Hamarabi times.

Answer 4

Not to defend them or anything, I disagree with you . They are human beings and one mistake - either small or big can be forgiven, but never forgotten. If every time you made a mistake in your life , one of your rights would be taken away, nobody would have any rights. Life is about living it to the fullest and dieing knowing you have proven something and learned along the way. Just because some 15 - year old put grafitti on the local variety store's back door doesn't mean they should be deprived of a well - lived life. People CAN change. I'm not saying that rapests are saints, but people can change. Being locked in a cell for years can show people they did wrong and maybe help them change. Just think about what you said.
Thanks,
Mercedes Killeen

Answer 5

Hello...I actually think that this is when we need to make sure that "our" rights are protected the most. Divesting people of their rights allows leaders to imprison those w/opposing p.o.view w/out question. It eats at the very principle of a democracy.
Having said that, I would like to see sentences shorter but the time spent in isolation w/o t.v. or news from home, hard labor, and counseling. It works for the Japanese. Exception that supports ur p.o.v. falls to the pedophiles and sex criminals. After extensive study, it has been proven that they thus far are completely non-re-habitable! I rather think that crime is intrinsic to the system anyway ie: poverty and unfortunantly human nature ie; GREED.

Answer 6

What rights? What crime? The criminal, no matter the severity, still right to a trial. You surely don't want them to lose that right? For the most part felons already lose the right to vote, legally to carry a firearm, etc. Is the real question referring to how unresponsive to the public the judicial system is? They put our safety in jeopardy every time they plea bargain on of the really bad guys. But we all should be careful about taking away rights, because as you know ours will be next.

Answer 7

I think criminals are better protected than the victims! When they are released from prison they are given new identites and sheltered!
Even in prison they seem to get a certain degree of good comfort and they even get qualifications - i can see the reasoning behind this however- our tax is paying for it! Opportunities they are given in prison isn't even given to some of the public!
Criminals should be given less rights form the viewpoint that so many are getting off with their crimes on loop holes in the law system!
The justice system is certainly far off the mark in a lot of cases!

Answer 8

A right is something that a person has because they are strong enought to keep them, it is impossible to deny someone their rights what most people think of are not rights but privilages that people with more power have granted and are perfectly capable of taking away,
If people break the law why do they deserve to be protected by the law if they themselves disreguard it when it benifits them effectivly they are parasites so yes they should lose their "rights"

Answer 9

Unless it is for something trivial like non payment of council tax then yes I do think they should have all their rights forfeited. I know being sent to prison is supposed to be punishment in its own right but this does not seem to make much difference to many that are locked-up and they still manage to break the law while in prison.

Answer 10

Yes absolutely. They are not tough enough with the law breakers and that's why they continue to be law breakers. If they were made to suffer the same way as their victims do then things might be different. The do-gooders in this country have a lot to answer for and so does Blair for signing us up to the Human Rights crap.