Can love reduce crime?

Question

Criminals should be handled with kid gloves. They are like kids. The will continue to do things that you stop them from doing.

We should avenge their crimes by giving them love. Eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. It's all about loving your criminals.

Ofcourse, Sara, it's not that easy. It will require a great deal of sacrifice.

All they need is a big tight hug.

Answer 1

love cannot reduce crime-there are crimes of passion. criminals should be handled in the same manner which they treated their victims.

Answer 2

The problem starts before the conviction. Love to prisoners may not help, but love in the home before one becomes a prisoner will for sure help. This is a good topic because prisoner treatment does have an impact on recidivism I believe. How does one punish and create a healthy member of society upon release? Rehabilitation is an important goal, but we don't want a sissy system in place either. There needs to be some balance. Its easy to punish like mad, the sign of a free state is one that shows some self-restraint, but if it shows too much restraint it goes back again full circle like Britain a police state with sissy laws.

Answer 3

Not all criminals are dumb and ignorant and can be cured by "love."
In fact some of them are incredibly smart, especially some of the revenge-seekers. Like someone already said, there are passion-driven crimes.

Answer 4

Whatever, eye for eye, let the punishment fit the crime. Coddling criminals will get you nothing

Answer 5

Hi Maddy, you sure have posted several questions since I was last here! Thanks so much, as I really enjoy these questions of yours. Each question you post shows a bit more of your personality and I have to say I do think you are an individual of high intellect and moral fiber as well as kind and generous of nature. With that said, I will discuss with you some of my thoughts on this issue.

I agree with the underlying issue not openly written in your question: That our current incarceration system needs to be changed. That is the basic premise of this question as currently prisoners are not treated with kindness or compassion. I read the posts written prior to my attempt at this question and so far I agree with the person named Correct....(the name is somewhat cutoff and I didn't take the time to go and find out what it is fully). That is a well written response and goes to the critical issue. It is simply truth that crime can go a long way towards being cut way down if we start in the home. This also is such a huge social issue it is difficult to adequately address it here. However, it must be said that there are many criminals who come from good families and were raised with love, compassion, and given many opportunities. Why these people choose a life of crime against society is a question well beyond the scope of this question and this forum. We will just have to focus on those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and/or abusive and neglectful homes. Even those who are socio-economically advantaged can be neglected and abused. Abuse and neglect crosses all social-economical boundaries. We must understand this if we are to truly address this issue. When a child is abused and/or neglected, s/he is disenfranchised in society. The wounds inflicted intentionally or unintentionally has a huge impact on the development of children, in many different ways. Not only can it cause deep emotional scars, it can and does cause a warped view of society and a high degree of feeling unsafe and alone. A child such as this will develop coping mechanisms which are unhealthy in the extreme and are easy targets for those who have aged into adulthood with similar societal dysfunction and have a high degree of anti-social behavior. The younger children then become the victim of older more mature criminals who have a high degree of skill at manipulation. These children and young adults both are victims of their disadvantaged and/or abusive backgrounds yet we still are throwing our youth and children away.

Presently our society is so scared of our criminals a mentality of “try them as adults and give the death penalty whenever the opportunity provides itself” is a wrong and morally corrupt way of dealing with our problems. These are children we are talking about, not adults and as such they do not have the brain development or ability to think as an adult. They also do not have any capacity to truly understand the ramifications of the consequences. The death penalty has been proven to not be a deterrent. Therefore, the major reason for its use is bogus and damaged. Yet, we still insist upon its use. The next reason for its continual use, or excuse as I see it, is the need to put down rabid animals who may have an opportunity to obtain release and again prey upon society. This is too a flawed reason and it has been proven we can enact laws which enforce a life sentence without parole. There simply is not a logical reason to use the death penalty, and yet we continue to uses it. The real reason it is used in this country is to maintain the belief we live in a “civilized” world. Individuals are afraid to have that myth dispelled and as long as we don’t recognize the inherent human qualities of our criminals, we can pretend that they are the minority and not the average response to an uncivilized world. When a child is faced with survival, it will react in ways uncivilized to continue his/her survival. Surviving is an extremely powerful force and the fight or flight syndrome has a huge role in how criminals behave.

Now, I have gotten a bit off track here. Sorry about that Maddy. As I mentioned at the beginning of this term paper, this is a huge issue. I do believe some criminals are beyond the ability to reform. I do believe that due to this some individuals need to be locked away from society in order to protect the innocents they prey upon. However, I do not believe all criminals deserve long sentences or to be humiliated or harmed in order for justice to be served. The very act of losing the right to roam about freely in society is suppose to be the punishment. However, it has been shown in a study conducted at a well known university that students cast into the role of guard and inmate soon take upon them certain characteristics of submission and act in manners which real inmates behave while the other take on characteristics of brutal and dominating manners which cause the submission and humiliation of the prisoners. Until we can find a way to avoid such characteristics we will continue to have brutalized inmates who are further victimized by the very justice system they are submitting to in paying for their crimes and we will continue to create monsters who abuse their powers and abuse inmates.

The answer does indeed start at home. Our society is increasingly becoming of fragmented family units. These families are increasingly developing ever deeper levels of dysfunction. Take for example the most horrific case of child assault in the news yesterday of two teen boys coaching a two year old and a five year old boys to smoke weed to the point of great intoxication. The mother is also now under suspension as a participating member. Society is just outraged such a thing could occur. However, these families are extremely young. This mother is not much more than a child herself. I am not excusing the behavior of these youths, but I am saying we need to take a deeper look at why this is happening and not just react to it. Until we start taking proactive measures to ward off such dysfunction and all the reasons it is happening in the first place we will continue our downward spiral into total chaos and turmoil our culture and society is currently facing. The breaking of our families and the isolation of young parents is increasingly troubling with catastrophic consequences. We MUST fight this at the root of the problem and that is at the family level.

This was a very difficult topic to discuss in any real cohesive format here in this forum. I am sorry if I rambled a bit. I have some strong opinions and feelings about this. I do thank you for posing the question. I wish you a great day and week to come.

Answer 6

Not when there are so many that love crime.

Answer 7

If only it were that easy

Answer 8

Then please take that message to the middle east and let us know how that works for you.