Can the US get any shittier?

[Gallstones]

They swamp the country with guns, and then try 12yolds as adults and give them 25 years when they use one.

Ignorant, foetid bigot.
Go fuck yourself with an infected cactus.

[pErvinalia]

Punitive justice is an anachronism, anyway. It rests on the concept of free will, which is all but dead from a scientific point of view. When its death is officially announced, punitive justice should give way to therapeutic incarceration.

Yeah, the issue of "free will" throws a whole spanner in the works of justice and "responsibility". I was going to mention it in a previous reply, by decided not to go there.

[pErvinalia]

Yep, no minors commit heinous crimes in the UK...

If they did, a 12 year old would be tried as a 12 year-old.

The killers of James Bulger were both 10 years old at the time of the murder. They were tried as adults. Do try and get your facts straight for once!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bulger#Trial

Indeed. Tried as adults, according to the same rigours principles of evidence and representation etc, but sentenced as children.

And that is a fairly critical difference.

As was the extraordinary nature of their crime.

Minus the US bashing, I'm with MM on this one...

Same here.

[pErvinalia]

They swamp the country with guns, and then try 12yolds as adults and give them 25 years when they use one.

Ignorant, foetid bigot.
Go fuck yourself with an infected cactus.

I've missed you G! And I made 1500 posts with my sock at ratskep and didn't interact with you once.

[Gallstones]

They swamp the country with guns, and then try 12yolds as adults and give them 25 years when they use one.

Ignorant, foetid bigot.
Go fuck yourself with an infected cactus.

I've missed you G! And I made 1500 posts with my sock at ratskep and didn't interact with you once.

I don't go there anymore. It became an elitist, liberal brit centric shithole. And boring as shit.

[Gallstones]

I really want the rest of the [liberal] world to believe the US is a shithole, a shithole beyond redemption, a frightening and dangerous place where you will get shot dead for looking cross eyed and a place no self pissing liberal pussy civilized person would dare ever visit.

Keep thinking that and tell all your friends.

[pErvinalia]

ok

[orpheus]

They swamp the country with guns, and then try 12yolds as adults and give them 25 years when they use one.

Ignorant, foetid bigot.
Go fuck yourself with an infected cactus.

Where is he wrong?

[hadespussercats]

Gallstones, this post contains an attack on another member, which, as you know, is against forum rules. This is a warning from the staff that any more posts in this vein could lead to further staff intervention. Thank you.

[SteveB]

I better get out of Dodge soon then. Let's say June 10th!

Although Houston has been in the news for some weeks because it fucked the recession in the ass, creating ~250% of the jobs it's lost.

[JimC]

I better get out of Dodge soon then. Let's say June 10th!

Although Houston has been in the news for some weeks because it fucked the recession in the ass, creating ~250% of the jobs it's lost.

Just watch out for armed 12 year olds...

[SteveB]

I better get out of Dodge soon then. Let's say June 10th!

Although Houston has been in the news for some weeks because it fucked the recession in the ass, creating ~250% of the jobs it's lost.

Just watch out for armed 12 year olds...

Should they be amputees?

[JimC]

What a strangely disarming comment...

[Warren Dew]

The idea is surely centred around rehabilitation, isn't it?

Of course not. Even mistermack understands that rehabilitation empirically doesn't work.

A child, particularly given the fact that they can't reason like normal adults can

Speak for yourself, please. I could reason fine at 10, and most 10 year olds I know can reason better than most adults, as they have had less time to accumulate prejudices to interfere with their logic.

This probably gets back to the distinction between a justice system that aims to rehabilitate and punish, as opposed to just punish.

Not at all. It speaks to the realities of a justice system that aims to prevent crime, which empirically seems possible only through deterrence and detention.

[pErvinalia]

Do you have figures to back that up? Aren't recidivist figures higher in the US system as opposed to say the Scandinavian model (which focuses less on punishment and more on rehabilitation)?