Sleeper

[Sleeper]

Hello, I'm Sleeper.

I am a Socialist with somewhat Conservative views on Crime & Punishment.

I enjoy music of all genres (except country) as well as hanging out with my wife and son. I also like video games, but do not consider myself an avid video game player.

I usually would not post an introduction thread because it makes me feel kind of silly, but I want to check if my signature is working, and it seems better to do this than risk derailing someone else's thread, or creating a bullshit thread somewhere else just to see if my signature is working.

So, there you go.

[Q]

Welcome :)

[Pogue]

welcome :)

[Sleeper]

Thank you X 2. :)

[Patchd]

Welcome to the site, what exactly are your views on crime and punishment and why do you hold those positions?

[Rjevan]

Hi and welcome to the forum! :)

[Sleeper]

Thank you X 2 again!

Patchd,

I'll put it this way, I live in America and I find the Criminal Justice system here to be largely appropriate, it just needs some fine-tuning.

For one thing, I'm pro death penalty and I actually think that the death penalty should be expanded to include child molestation, rape and attempted murder. However, I think that there needs to be a higher standard for something to be a death-penalty case.

For instance, with murder, you would either need multiple eye-witnesses or it would have to be on video. Of course, I think that all public areas (with exception to restrooms and the like) should be videotaped just because that would solve virtually every crime and would naturally decrease wrongful convictions.

With rape and attempted murder, I think the same rules should apply as murder, but the standards of what constitutes attempted murder would have to be raised.

With child molestation, I'll take both the testimony of the child in question and physical proof and have that suffice.

I understand that the videotaping of public areas could be considered to infringe on individual rights, but I really don't think so. Any public area can be videotaped right now, as it is, and that tape can be used against you in court. Imagine if everything were videotaped, though, so that you would see people entering or exiting a household in most cases. You would see a murderer go in and you would see him leave, so to me, that combined with some degree of physical evidence would constitute proof.

Of course, I'd also want the standard by which a jury finds someone guilty to be a little more stringent. You would still have 12 jurors, but there would be no more hung juries. If they do not unanimously convict you, then you're innocent.

I'd also be a little bit tougher on drunk driving, that would be a couple years in jail.

My opinion is that with attempted murder, the decision to kill someone was there it just so happens you didn't. With drunk driving, you could have killed someone, you just didn't...that time.

So, basically, I want to tweak the sentencing to be a little bit stricter, but I also want to make the standard by which someone is found guilty a little harder to achieve.

There's more detail than that, but I think it would necessitate it's own thread.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

Hi, welcome to the forum. :)

I don't want to seem mean and I know this is your first post, but I am strongly against the death penalty and I don't believe in punishment for punishment's sake; I think the only reason people should be imprisoned is to stop them being a danger to others and as a deterrent to prevent people from committing crimes in the first place. But as you said, this should probably be in a separate thread! I agree with you about videotaping of public places, though. It would make things much safer.

[Sleeper]

Hi, welcome to the forum. :)

I don't want to seem mean and I know this is your first post, but I am strongly against the death penalty and I don't believe in punishment for punishment's sake; I think the only reason people should be imprisoned is to stop them being a danger to others and as a deterrent to prevent people from committing crimes in the first place. But as you said, this should probably be in a separate thread! I agree with you about videotaping of public places, though. It would make things much safer.

Why would you seem mean? I'm for the death penalty and you're against it, if anyone is being mean, it's probably me!

In all seriousness, though, I think it is just a matter of different preferences and should rightfully be settled by public vote. In fact, since the death penalty is the harsher of the two options, I also think that it should require a 60% national vote to pass, which wouldn't happen in a Socialist country.

I do personally think that death would be a good deterrent to certain crimes involving children because apparently what we have going now doesn't stop them. In fact, if it were put on a ballot that only certain categories of child offender got the death penalty, it would still probably draw a, "Yea," from me.

[*Viva La Revolucion*]

Why would you seem mean? I'm for the death penalty and you're against it, if anyone is being mean, it's probably me!

I don't know really. I just feel bad for focusing on something I disagree with rather than just saying hello and leaving you alone. :lol:


In all seriousness, though, I think it is just a matter of different preferences and should rightfully be settled by public vote. In fact, since the death penalty is the harsher of the two options, I also think that it should require a 60% national vote to pass, which wouldn't happen in a Socialist country.

I do personally think that death would be a good deterrent to certain crimes involving children because apparently what we have going now doesn't stop them. In fact, if it were put on a ballot that only certain categories of child offender got the death penalty, it would still probably draw a, "Yea," from me.

It would be a good deterrent, but I'd be worried about innocent people being somehow framed or falsely accused. I also think it would be more beneficial to concentrate on the causes and prevention - I don't believe that certain people are inherently bad or evil, so I'd like to think that it would be possible to rehabilitate less serious offenders and eliminate the 'evils' within society that trigger people to do bad things.

But obviously there's no right or wrong answer with this issue, it's all just opinion.