When I watch court hearings I seem to always side with the accused. I realize crime is terrible but I also..

Question

realize jail is terrible because I have been there. I'm not saying that the way I see things is right. One thing that occurs to me is that Jesus taught us to forgive each other, and in a court room all I see is the strong desire for vengeance. And I kind of feel sorry for the criminal because I know they are either crazy or they grew up and lived with bad examples and never learned how to live in this society. I know its weird but I'm always siding with the accused.

Answer 1

Well we can't have criminals out there running around doing crimes against other people in hopes that when they get to court all will be forgiven.  If they're guilty, then they need to be punished.

Answer 2

A crime is a crime. Everyone knows the law. If they break it - they get punished.

Stuff what Jesus said - if someone gets hurt or is a victim, if we just turned the other cheek, what sort of message would that put out to the ruthless, cold-hearted wolves who prey on the sheep of society?

EDIT:

you wrote: "I think we should set free everyone except violent offenders and s*x offenders."

You are a d**n fool! I think you don't realize just how dangerous your position is! Thieves, drunk drivers, repeat catburglars, fraudsters and car jackers free on our streets?

FOOL!!!!

Remember what happened to Jesus. It was HE who forgave them, and that was His choice. If someone wants justice and retribution for an evil committed against them, more power to them!

Answer 3

Yes, well depends on the crime, i sometimes side with the accused sometimes side with the accuser.

But always siding with the accused isn't justice. maybe you should try thinking that you are the accuser.

Answer 4

It's hard for me 2 side with the accused like a child mol, a man who kills his wife vice versa, a man/woman who won't man/woman up and pay child support, etc.....

Answer 5

You're struggling with some of the greater theoretical difficulties in sentencing.  Principles of culpability are based on individual freedom, and at least to a significant extent, most criminality is a consequence of social conditioning.

On the grand scale, we need the criminal justice system to largely ignore these problems, for consequentialist reasons.  Some philosophers (i.e. P.F. Strawson) have tried to resolve the issues by using a theory of common socialization - i.e. criminals can't feel wronged when being punished because they have been indoctrinated with the same social values about punishment as we have.

Myself, I'm big on trial fairness and rule of law, which has the consequence that I'm pretty open to being convinced by 'no mens rea' defences.  But upon conviction, there are certain mitigating and aggravating factors that resonate pretty loudly with me, so I can be pretty inconsistent in my opinions of what should happen to convicts.