Like I said, the topic's a loss...
...people don't listen when it comes to issues this emotionally charged, they don't hear what you say--just that you're disagreeing with them.
All we're doing here is stating our personal opinions over and over again--and half the time we aren't even talking about the same thing.
I'm sorry my post got quoted before I removed it. I realized as soon as I hit post that
I was just speaking out of anger, and that it wasn't going to do any good...
...seems I was right considering my post about pedophiles who
don't rape children was responded to with a litany of reasons why pedophiles who
do should be locked up.
For the record:
Tokis-Phoenix said:
I do believe prison is a deterrant for "emotion-driven crimes" as you put it, as if prison did not exist most people would cross those lines in an instant that they had so struggled not to cross before because of the consequences. Do you honestly believe that if we didn't have prison, that crime rates would be pretty much the same?
No, the crime rate would be much lower.
First, even if we assume that prison is a deterrant for emotion-driven crimes, the lack of prisons woud provide an even stronger deterrant:
Fear of being murdered by an angry lynchmob.
While it's true that many child molesters are killed in prison, they'd be in far more danger if the kid's family didn't have to worry about going to prison for killing them.
While certainly not a system I'd want to live in, you can't deny that fear of a lynchmob appeals to the self-preservation instinct far more than fear of having armed gaurds and fortified defenses between you and that mob.
Secondly, prison is a punishment--not a means of behavioral correction.
I know they call them "Correctional Facilities", but hey, I guess some people see George Orwell's "1984" as a strategy guide intead of a cautionary tale.
I could write a book on the many reasons why locking a person up and forcing them to live with multitudes of people who weren't able to funcion in society is a bad idea--but I don't like dwelling on my past, so I won't bother outlining it here either.
If you can't figure out why a prison environment makes people
more prone to criminal behavior, then I doubt you've ever really thought about what being incarceated is like...
...and how can you advocate putting
anyone in a stuation you don't clearly understand?