2008-07-26, 04:55 AM
Hazzy Wrote:Rehab would be much better than prison. Actually teaching them why their actions were wrong is going to yield more results than bitching at them.
Um...I'm pretty sure that they know it's wrong. If you're a diehard liberal, then you say that they commit crimes because the social situation they are in gives them no other options and not because they're just bad people, but I don't think anyone thinks that criminals just don't realize that what they're doing is bad. =x
Answer to your question = deterrence. It's supposed to show the rest of us what will happen if we commit a crime and give us a reason not to commit them. A lot of people don't believe that it's very effective at that, but it's definitely supposed to do more than "satisfy the selfish desire of the 'victim' for revenge." (Also, lol @ your scare quotes. I would imagine they'd be pretty offensive to anyone who had actually been the victim of a crime.)