Quote by: The Sexorcist  First off, this is my first post ever on here, so I'm pretty stoked! Oh boy, I do hope I meet ever so many friends! Ha!
Seriously, howdy ya'll.
Okay, anyway, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I saw the previous topic, "Alternatives to Prisons" before I created this, so the time seemed right to bring it up.
Crimminals. Evil, or just stupid?
Ever since I can remember, crimminals have been protrayed and seen as "the bad guys"; inherently evil people with no regard for common decency and lacking a moral compass, who willingly rob, rape, molest and steal old ladies purses for the pure thrill of being BAD, and that's it. No motivating force, just pure, black evil oozing from every pore.
Recently, the neighborhiood Safeway where I lived was robbed. I heard gunshots and later on that day, it was on the news with full details. Appearntly the 19 year old guy was addicted to methadone, walked into the grocery store pharmacy with a shotgun, robbed the place and briefly took a hostage. The robber wanted to die by shooting, aka suicide by cops. My roomate knew the kid from high school.
This got me thinking; when I first heard about the robbery, I figuered, "It's just another robbery, whatever." But after I heard why he did it, his addiction to a drug worse than heroin, his desire to die, I beagan thinking; do all or most crimminals have reasons for their crimes?
Here's my theory; all robbers, burglars, drug smugglers, assualts and so on, they are not done because the perps are EVIL, it seems that in 99% of cases there is some reason for the crime. Desperation, addiction, fear, stupidity. Not all, but most crimes.
Thoughts, or examples for against? It seems if this is appplicable, it could serious change the justice system; "three strikes and your out" laws, the severity of some crimes, the entire jail system as we know it. I know this is a braod question, but I think once you dig into it, it opens some seriously interesting questions about our notion of justice.
Thoughts?
(Sorry it's so long) |