Do you have any compassion for criminals? ?

Question

There are so many people who commit crimes and people are like that is what they get! I tend to wonder what drives a person to get so desperate that they commit the crime in the first place. I feel sorry for them in a way because it has to be more than they are just bad people. There is more involved. I would like to know how others feel.

Answer 1

I feel sorry for many of them because crime is mostly situational to your environment. The bum who steals does so justly, and, i know if i were poor, i would resort to stealing food. The average person would. Yet we punish them anyway. I'm reading a book about the power of situational ethics/forces called The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, and i find that most people commit a wrong-doing that most people would do when put into the same situation.

Answer 2

No compassion at all. Criminals should either be executed by being hung or shot. Not this pain free BS like lethal injection.

Or they should be used in the scientific community for testing in stead of animals.

Or they should be made to fight to the death gladiator style on pay per view.

Answer 3

i have compassion for anybody except for child molesters and rapist other than that i can se where their coming from

Answer 4

I think some forms criminality is mental illness.

Some criminality is just laziness. They want an easy way out instead of working.  

Answer 5

I don't feel sorry for them they choose to commit the crime, no one forced them to do it.

Homeless people living under a bridge are not stealing or selling drugs to get by so to say that at some point you give up on self dignity and responsibility. Lets get the truth out. If committing a crime is due to circumstances then the ones with the least would be committing the majority of crimes and they don't.

Criminals are looking for the fast easy buck nothing more.  

Answer 6

Yes i under stand you but i cannot find a place in my heart to forgive or forget, specially when my daughter was victim of sexual abuse.  I can see that his problem is (not was) uncontrollable due to past incidents in his childhood.  That's where therapy comes in and my empathy towards him.  That's all I can say.  God Bless!

Answer 7

No, they get what they deserve.

Answer 8

I feel sorry for them that they have to sink so low as to do something criminal but I don't feel sorry for them being punished. They deserve it. Actually the law is way too gentle on criminals.

Answer 9

Yeah, I do, a little bit. I watch a lot of murder biographies and stories, as well as a lot of crime movies. As much as I like to say that they deserve their sentences, which they do, I can't help thinking about their spouse and kids and how much they would be suffering too (especially if they were shocked to find out he/she was a criminal). However, I also feel for the families of the victim and how much they want to see justice served.

I really don't like the death sentence, though. Personally, a life sentence sounds a lot more cruel than a death penalty, and who gives us the power to say if we can give or take away lives? Blood doesn't wash away blood, and killing a criminal, I feel, is just like murdering someone. They're people! They're fathers, mothers, sons, daughters... they should have a chance to live like any other person.

But, in answer to your question, yes, I do. I respect all people. In certain cases. lot of criminals also have a lot of mental issues too, if they have the desire to do something that bad, and should have been fixed, or something.  

Answer 10

Which acts are 'criminal ' is variable  from one society to another.  Similarly, who gets to be labelled as 'criminal'  varies within any one society.

So I agree with your position that we should not  analyse crime as simply a matter of 'bad people'.  

However, this doesn't mean that individual responsibility for  any crime is not also factor.  It is better to see it as a 'necessary but not a sufficient' explanation for crime.

So both moral outrage about any specific set of crimes, or a compassionate approach to individual criminals,  can be  good or dangerous for society.depending on the circumstances.  

Answer 11

It depends on the person and the situation. If its done out of desperation I have compassion. If its done from boredom, spite, or "peer pressure" I don't feel much compassion.