Active Users:335 Time:07/07/2025 08:47:13 AM
I fear this clarification may further confuse things, by making punishment seem a non-factor. - Edit 2

Before modification by Joel at 26/08/2012 09:42:59 PM

I found quite a good article in The Atlantic which discusses the difference between the retributive and restorative justice systems.

It covers the different foundational perspectives (for the record, many Americans, in which I include myself, strongly support restorative justice.) My (perhaps false) impression, however, is that the article contends punishment is not even a minor consideration, which is not my understanding. If rehabilitation and protecting society were the sole concerns, minimum sentences of 10 years or any length would be inappropriate: People would be incarcerated until/unless rehabilitated, then released, whether 10 years or 10 minutes later. Lene notes Breiviks detention would not be nearly so spartan had he been found insane, despite his threat to society would being no less: Criminal incarceration clearly has a penal element, however great or small. Talk of TV and Ikea obscures that, encouraging the existing misunderstanding.

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