Dealing with crime

Dealing with crime

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5195910.stm

Given todays releasing of the latest crime figures and John Reid's announcement that thousands more prison places are to be created what are people's thoughts on dealing with crime??

Does prison work or should alternative methods be employed??

Re: Dealing with crime

I'd quite like to see chain gangs. Don't know how practical it is, but I think it's a good combination of community service and still taking away someone's freedom.

Punishment that benefits society in some form other than just removing the criminal

Re: Re: Dealing with crime

totally

and there should be punishments that pay back what they've taken from society too...

in terms of things they've stolen & damaged etc...

theirs a couple of things that need combatting, firstly the reasons behind the need/want to commit crime, and secondly the re-offender rates. prisons isnt tough enough for some of them. it doesnt put the fear of god in them and make them wanna go onto the staight and narrow.

i dunno if the government do this but there needs to b som sort of work based rehabilitation scheme where ex offenders are givent the oppertunity to get back into work and not use crime as a way of supporting themselves

Re: Re: Re: Dealing with crime

How would that work though?

National service should be brought back imo.

nah, its two years out of young peoples lives where they could be studying.

i do think offenders should go to some sort of boot camp, bad lads army style

Some countries have a system of national service where you can choose to do a year's military service, or 6months service as a civil servant, eg. governmental admin type jobs, or jobs in OAP care homes etc.

I think it's a good idea

Re: Re: Re: Re: Dealing with crime

fuck knows i'm just an ideas man

Sorry, i mean national service for scum bags

I can't stand it when they say the youth of today turns to crime because it's bored.

I personally believe that capitalism breeds crime, in a society thats values materialism many people are left feeling inferior... This insecurity is the product of an immoral society.

We're told from a young age that if we are to be seen as a success we need to achieve materialisticly; a nice house, good job, fancy car... If someone is unable to achieve this they are seen as a failure.

Life doesn't work like that, a road sweeper isn't a bad person because he doesn't work in a fancy office... both are valued jobs - yet we don't see it that way.... Society needs to review its aspirations if it is to get rid of crime.

Until then we need to work on rehabilitation and real jail sentences.

i reckon if you arent gonna go into further education that would be quite good

Very well said

Good points, but I don't fully agree. Crime is just as prevalent in non-capitalist and poor countries, where there isn't the materialistic lifestyle to aspire to. I think you'd have been better saying capitalism breeds greed, and even then greed doesn't always necessarily breed crime.

it depends what type of crime is bein commited, if its crime for financial gains then i agree, our capitalist ways can be blamed for that, but what about crimes of shear violence and vandalism, theres somet seriously wrong with society when people are commiting random acts of violence. its not jst in our country though but its out of control.

this is where i think a boot cam would be excellent. if people of a certain age, say 16 - 18 are commiting these types of crimes then they shold be sent to a boot camp where they get ironed out and have some decent morals put into them

Personally I don't think there is a single solution. Different people will respond to different styles of punishment.

For many prison is an occupational hazard, a worthwhile risk for a career of crime which offers significantly higher benefits than the alternative opportunities available to them. Thus unless you either fundamentally change the 'prison experience' (virtually impossable given todays human rights dominated environment) or find ways to provide them with realistic alternative careers there's a neverending cycle of crime.

In many cases rehabilitation is a more appropriate punishment as it hopefully deals with the major cause of the receipient turning to crime (ie drugs etc).

Agree entirely that prisoners / those on community service should be doing public works projects (gardening, litter picking etc - just generally improving the environment we all live in)

The above deals entirely with reactive ideas rather than looking at pro-active ideas to turn people away from crime before it's committed. I can't be arsed to think about this at the moment so will leave it until later

another point to discuss regarding sentencing.

i heard t'other day that they were thinking about doing away with parole for criminals who have committed violent acts such as rape murder and alike.

personally i think this idea should have came about years ago

It depends how you define crime...

Stealing bread in a trans-feudal/modernised society so that your family can eat is a crime - but it is crime motivated by survival... Stealing an ipod so that you can earn cash money is motivated by greed.

If we look at nations like Ireland and Yemen we find a much lower crime rates per capita, I believe this is so because there exists within these societies a very different ethos.

Both are highly religious nations and very moralistic, both don't have the individual’s occidental drive to succeed - Ireland has a legacy intellectuals and poets - yet they're just as proud of their farmers and distillers.

Religion plays a strong role in crime statistics... In the west we have rebelled against the rigid authoritarian structure of religion and created its diametric opposite... Liberalism... Liberalism has also had a huge impact on crime statistics... the combination of liberalism and capitalism are proper morality fucks.

How can you expect anything other than crime when we’re told from childhood to adulthood that we must succeed, while simultaneously being told there’s no such thing as right or wrong – just human nature.

Very good post that. I am not a religious person but i agree with the morals that are tought in books like the bible etc as i read and learnt about them when i was a child and when I have children I would encourage them to embrace religion although I wouldnt force it upon them. At the end of the day, if you can istill the meaning of right and wrong into a child, then society will be better for it in the future.