What does our society value more, Justice or Vengence?

Question

Our society has a basic concept behind it, break a social rule and you will be held accountable. But this rule has a caveat attached, you will be held accountable only so far as is just and right.

Yet we must ask ourselves why then is there the popularity of shows like Law and Order where the police officers conduct behaviours that would see any normal officer arrested and jailed for misconduct, why is this form of entertainment so fulfilling?

Why do we have a little victory dance (figuratively speaking) when someone is convicted of a crime and sentenced to a long term?

Why are there organisations that cry foal when someone accused of a crime has a lessened sentence due to an error on the polices part even thought the rules are clearly stated before any of it began?

Why do we feel that we must change rules that have served well for many years to counter a new (albeit imagined) threat?

Why do we continue to fear and keep from people who have fully served a sentence, keeping some on registers and walking across other side of the street for others?

Does this not scream of a society that loves, feeds on and needs to see Vengeance and not Justice, does it not speak of a society that must, like an addiction, see some harsh punishment dispensed and having a making of reparation not satisfying enough?

If this is the case must we not look to ourselves as the cause of the downward spiral of or society? If we need to see vengeance done are we not creating that which we try to avoid in the first place?

Please explain your answers.

Thanks.

Please note : Any answer that contains the argument “would you like it if” will NOT be considered at all.

Answer 1

Eastern State Penitentiary was the first of it's kind, built in Philadelphia. It was created with the philosophy that men were being jailed to learn and "repent" for their crimes. The idea was that as a society, our value was for justice and reform of the prisoner.
As the years have passed, however, it seems clear that with the advent of sex offender registries and three strikes laws, our society is more concerned with punishment than reform. In fact, we confuse the terms "Justice" and "Punishment" using them synonymously.
Stripping criminals of their liberty does not stop at the penitentiary walls. It follows them through an inability to find gainful employment and housing due to criminal background checks.
Many claim that this a predominantly Christian society, thus with values of forgiveness, yet we cannot seem to apply this principle to those that commit crimes.
So, we have lost the penitentiaries, and now have the super-max prisons, where we warehouse prisoners, punish them, and teach them to be more efficient criminals.
We have sentencing guidelines that don't always make sense for all people, yet some go to prison for more time than they should due to a minimum sentence guideline.

We also have a huge number of mentally ill people that get stuck in the prison system with very poor health care because the "Justice System" does not recognize their state of mind during the commission of a crime.

At this point in history, I would have to say, our system is about who can outsmart each other in the courtroom, then about vengence and punishment.

Answer 2

The fact that an intended crime is punished more heavily than an unintended one, clearly indicates that there is the element of vengeance in the justice meted out by the society. It does react like an emotional individual when a member indulges in planned disobedience of the rules set by it. It is the presence of emotion that differentiates vengeance from justice.

How can the society be emotionally attached to its norms and regulations? The truth is that society is after all an extension of the personality traits of the individuals who constitute it. Whether through the individuals occupying power and decision making positions, or through the majority who give feedback through support or opposition, the society ends up reflecting what its members are prone to think or do. Since we people, in our individual capacity, are generally prone to be vengeful whenever any harm is done to us rather than being neutrally just in our reactions.... so it happens with our society as well. It is very negative to think so, but I sincerely believe that the society is and has always been quite vengeful towards those who dare to cross it.

I truly appreciate your great question full of insight and sincerity.

Answer 3

Our society and adjacent societies do indeed value vengeance more than anything else. Our society and adjacent societies belong to the religion of the Cross and to the religion of the Sword that paradoxically declare to be subscribing to a merciful Almighty God.

The ever near looming Vengeance simply means that if you do not march right, if you consciously or even uncosciously fail in observing the rules of the System, if you do not take on and use the blinders as prescribed by the Law, once you are identified you will be metaphorically crucified, bodily or psychically tortured to no end and destined to Hell-fire if you live within the borders of the religion of the Cross, or you will be literally beheaded or stoned or hanged to your death if you live within the borders of the religion of the Sword.

Justice may have a quite relative meaning of convenience for the powerful ones and very detrimental for many less favored ones, it may be inhexorably based on pre-privileged rights of race and class. Justice may quite brutally depend on the weights that the powerful put on the scale. You may put a sword, and a sword, real or metaphorical, is mostly used for vengeance now as it was used in Roman times.

Our society values Vengeance more than it values Justice. And Justice is anyway very relative, of convenience, and ever conventioned by the inhexorable ruling power.

Answer 4

No. the fee of the youngster tax deduction has been dropping because the 50's. Social safe practices funds do not reflect the contribution of mothering. There are not any actual, tangible "thanks"s in our society. Veterans do, (and could) recieve some more desirable helps because of their service to the country. They quit their "time-honored" jobs, bypass to warfare for decades, and we couldn't make it as a counntry without them. We also couldn't make it as a rustic without the voulenteerism of 1000's of ladies human beings. we ought to continuously understand this - positioned a real funds fee on it - and custodial mom and father could get a small pension sometime, (possibly for each individual toddler who reached age 25 without ending up in reformatory.) If we valued motherhood in any respect, it would not be seen a "destroy" from the truly major paintings of earning earnings. it truly is a job already, and a splendidly life like and noble occupation. We did we end welfare? because it changed into all started at the same time as anybody assumed that each and each and every toddler merits, no less than, a mom to strengthen him. Now it truly is idea that any paid worker can do it. Even wealthy women human beings thankfully paintings for pay - they see no fee in actual mothering finished-time. So why could undesirable women human beings do it, no matter if it truly is worthless? I disagree, of route, yet it truly is how the reasoning is going.

Answer 5

Vengence has the face of the 14yo boy who shot 6 people in his school yesterday before killing himself. We decry this. Justice is why we put on trial O.J. Simpson, even though he was found not guilty. (Not guilty is not the same as innocent, legally or metaphysically.) Vengence is the initiation of force when the lawful force of the justice system is available. The "prime directive" in every civilization is "no one may initiate the use of force or he shall do harm."

Answer 6

The problems of modern western society, which is materialistically founded, where people are all in a race for time, hectic, these things are only natural. Where every one is running short of time and in such a halte to goon (God knows where) who cares? No one cares, and o one shall account for anything, and people are impersonal, just to shrugg and go on..................