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Should victims have a say on punishment?


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Should victims have a say on punishment for the criminal?   

20 members have voted

  1. 1. Should victims have a say on punishment for the criminal?

    • Yes
      14
    • No
      6


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When a crime is committed, any crime...assault, theft, murder, etc... should the victim or victims be able to co-decide with the court on the punishment of the criminal?

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No a punishment for a crime should be constant, i feel if one thief got worse crime cause the victem said so compared to anotehr crime it just promotes unfairness in the system

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Yes. It's only fair. They ruined your life, you should have at least a say in the ruinment of their life. :yes:

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I voted yes but only regarding a guilty verdict of a capital offense where the victim(s) family would have the opportunity to decide on life imprisonment or the death penalty.

As far as lessor crimes, there are guide lines in place for punishments that, although at times lax, seem to be exceptable ,generally, to most people involved.

For example, I don't think that allowing a distraught husband and his wife,a rape vicitm to sentence the guilty party to casturation and life imprisonment would really serve justice (even though that is what I would want if it was my wife)

Edited by praetorian-legio XIII
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For example, I don't think that allowing a distraught husband of a rape vicitm to sentence the guilty party to casturation and life imprisonment would really serve justice (even though that is what I would want if it was my wife)

Gets the monster off the streets, for life, and even if he makes appeal, he's got no fun bags.

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Make a statement? Yes. They certainly have the right.

Co-decide actual punishment? No. Too much emotion.

Just my opinion.

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I had to come down on the no side. I think that victims and their families should be able to speak up on what they would like sentencing to be to the courts, but I don't think they should have an actual say in the sentencing.

There is that whole eighth amendment thing, and I think it likely that a lot of victims might step over the line there. And we already have a lot of law stuff about sentencing.

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How would you ask a murder victim? Would they ask their family?

Yeah that's what i meant.

There have been many cases where for example, a person abused and killed a mother and father's children. Sometimes these criminals are released back on the street and controversy follows. But the court states that this person is ready to be released back in society.

While the family can only say that they don't feel justice because they are not ready yet.

So on which side is a best to error?

Should the family still have a say in this or just be dismissed because the law is what it is and they just have to deal with it ?

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crime victims and their families, if the crime victims are dead, can make victim impact statements in court, which i think is a big help to them if they choose to make one. they are allowed to say how badly their lives are affected by the guilty defendant's actions against them.

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It's tempting to give some victims, of egregiously heinous crimes, carte blanche. Such input might enter the territory of cruel and unusual, though. What if there was a list of constitutional, just punishments from which they could choose that would benefit them? They would receive appropriate, fair compensation within legal guidelines that were drawn up by the court before the perpetrator even thought about their crime.

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It's too easy to order some nasty things when you have a large group on your back and no consequence or risk involved. So I said no.

if they had to do it themselves on equal grounds like in a gladiator pit, I'd say sure, but people are usually too cowardly to do that.

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Consider this from those victims' and their closed ones' point of view who dont want to have anything at all to do with the perpetrator. Asking them any more than what's necessary, and this isn't necessary, wont do them any good. Asking this also feeds the idea and emotions related to vengeance, which also doesn't do any good to anyone. If you want to take vengeange, risk sentence and commit a crime or hire someone to commit a crime or a legal yet hurting act towards the perpetrator. Or we could use a law that allowed pre-agreed duels to death, if both parties agreed.

People just dont do crimes without some sort of previous continuum of bad experiences and feelings. You should focus more on making the world a better place from those aspects and less on instigating people for that stuff.

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Consider this from those victims' and their closed ones' point of view who dont want to have anything at all to do with the perpetrator. Asking them any more than what's necessary, and this isn't necessary, wont do them any good. Asking this also feeds the idea and emotions related to vengeance, which also doesn't do any good to anyone. If you want to take vengeange, risk sentence and commit a crime or hire someone to commit a crime or a legal yet hurting act towards the perpetrator. Or we could use a law that allowed pre-agreed duels to death, if both parties agreed.

People just dont do crimes without some sort of previous continuum of bad experiences and feelings. You should focus more on making the world a better place from those aspects and less on instigating people for that stuff.

not really vengence .. there is something called justice

and yeah i say the victim .. or his/her family in case the person was killed should get to decide the criminal fate

tis only fitting

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Man, when you ask a question like these lots of members their imaginations go completely wild.

The question doesn't propose a situation where you can ask the judge if you can get a room with the criminal and a baseball bat to go at her/him.

That's why i explicitely added the "co-decide with the court on the punishment".

To bring down everyones imagination, an example scenario:

Child of mother and father is kidnapped and killed , the criminal has an accomplice who doesn't harm the children but just stands by and enables the criminal.

Both of them are caught and thrown in jail, after 3 years the accomplice is up for parol and granted release because she/he is deemed not threat to society.

The family of the survivor is appauled and doesn't feel ready to deal with this yet. Should their feelings be taken into account because of course they feel no justice, and so could they co-decide with the court and form some sort of compromise instead of just being dismissed?

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Why do you need protection of the law to pay them back? You can hire a hitman or a thug, thugs dont cost that much if you got some spare savings and dont wanna do it all by yourself. Do you need an "okay" from society? I know I dont, not that I believe in that kind of vengeange really... you can decide people's fates without leaning on others for support there. It's not fair that someone precious from you was taken or you or your closed one was violated, yes. But the culprits dont usually get help from the law, except in cases like "Conspiracy of Silence"... so why should you? Isn't that just fair too? You think very emotionally and anyone would when their closed one is done in, but if you wanna speak justice and what's equal, that is. And you know what eye for an eye attitute does ultimately... so you should take responsibility or at least the same risk if you go there. The world isn't a lenient place where you can go to mr. police officer and always get help, there's some very twisted people in there too.

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