>From Miguel Braganza miguelbraganza at yahoo.co.in Mon Mar 10 12:09:07 PDT 2008 > Justice is not served by investigating a crime. It is served by preventing its occurence. Would justice be served by punishing the culprits who raped one's daughter or sister? Does it undo the rape? Is it just? An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind ...not just! > >From Miguel Braganza braganza.miguel at gmail.com Tue Mar 11 09:42:47 PDT 2008 > Punishment, specially EXEMPLARY punishment, does not give justice but PREVENTS recurrence of the crime. > Mario responds: > Though this thread involves a discussion about the deaths of Gregory Fernandes versus Scarlett Keeling, what caught my eye were Miguel's repeated assertions about the meaning of justice. > For example, Miguel says, "Justice is not served by investigating a crime". My response, "Oh, really?" > Another example, Miguel says, "Would justice be served by punishing the culprits who raped one's daughter or sister? Does it undo the rape? Is it just?" My answer, "To the first and third question, of course justice is served the way justice is defined in the English language. To the second. No, it doesn't undo the rape, but it does provide justice the way justice is defined." > What justice has the rape victim received if the objective is only to prevent others from being raped? > A third example, Miguel says, "Punishment, specially EXEMPLARY punishment, does not give justice but PREVENTS recurrence of the crime." My response, "I have no idea what EXEMPLARY punishment may be, but punishment determined by the justice system in any civilized society not only provides the victim with justice for the crime committed, but also seeks to prevent the recurrence of future crimes by reminding others of the consequences of crime." > I am basing my opinions on the definition of justice, which is: "the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments." > Legally administered justice is rarely "An eye for an eye". Even in the rare cases of capital punishment, the intention is to punish only the perpetrator, not to make the whole world blind, but to make them see that they should not commit such crimes. > It is a laudable objective to prevent a crime before it occurs, but this can only be attempted by taking precautions. If it were that easy there would be far fewer crimes. > In my opinion, justice in any civilized society must include the administration of legally determined punishment for the perpetrator - the side benefit of justice when properly applied is to remind others of the consequences of crime. >
