Viewpoint 1:
The fact that there are currently people trapped inside prisons throughout the United States troubles me. I don’t like the idea of prison. Why should another being, a human, have no access to the rest of society? I can’t imagine what this lack of freedom feels like and how terrible living life in a small cage must be.
What is the prison system accomplishing? It segregates people who have committed acts that the majority of the public disagrees with, but crime continues in an endless cycle. People who steal come out of prison and immediately begin stealing again. Same with drug dealing - "either you're slinging crack rock or you've a wicked jump shot" - what is the cause of this mentality that is prevalent amongst some people? Prison isn't going to fix any of these problems.
Innocent people get harmed everyday. Once in a while, a story will hit the news that gets everyone talking about how awful crime is – usually a story about a person with “so much potential” who was murdered at a young age. Hours later, everyone moves on with their lives and says: “That’s terrible. Good thing that didn’t happen to me. At least the killer will be in prison so I don’t have to worry about it.”
Instead of focusing on permanent changes to our social system and solving these issues, we temporarily lock our problems away.
Viewpoint 2:
The fact that there are currently people killing other people, stealing from other people, raping other people, selling substances with malicious and addictive properties to other people, and physically harming other people, troubles me. Why should a person harm another person in any way? These people are a danger to society. They disgust me. How can we live with these types of people around? They should be holed up until they die.
I’m more of a believer in Viewpoint 1 than Viewpoint 2, but I don’t know how to reconcile these two views and what the proper resolution is.
I think in the future I’ll type more about some different crimes like drug use/dealing and stealing for which I believe there may be answers, but I want to address murder here.
Human on human killing is something I can’t understand. It’s an unfathomable act to me, but killing, in general, is a major aspect of life. Animals kill animals. Animals kill humans. Humans kill animals (probably an astonishing number throughout history if you think about it). Human kills humans. Killing another human during a war is “ok” but killing another human outside of war is a terrible act.
What is the cause of murder? I guess in some cases you can point to basic human traits – jealousy, anger, greed, competitiveness, and survival instincts. Then, there are ideological differences. “Hate Crimes”. Biological composition - insanity.
Has anyone ever talked to someone who has killed another person? I’d like to hear about that.
Killing is an act that I’m not sure how to prevent. Problem is that I feel like it’s driven by basic human emotion in many cases. There aren’t really any changes that can be made to societal structures that will stop murder because the cause of murder isn’t related to these constructs. You can threaten people all you want with the death penalty and prison, but if someone wants to murder someone, they’ll probably do it anyway.
I do think there are better ways to get over ideological differences and that all-out wars can be thwarted, but obviously, history doesn’t agree with me and large-scale battles have occurred numerous times.
If you're really interested in learning more about why people kill, I recommend an intriguing book I once read for a class. It's called The Will to Kill. Amazon has a newer edition, but you can read some pages from the 2000 edition on there too.
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ReplyDeleteYou present a very interesting dichotomy. I think it's important to be informed by both ends of the spectrum when making policy decisions. In addition to thinking about the causes of crime on an individual level (temperament, emotions, etc), what about the systemic issues that lead one to make these choices, such as poverty, lack of access to adequate educaction/ employment/ housing/ health care? Many prison reform organizations are focusing their efforts now on re-entry programs that aid people who have been incarcerated to integrate back into society, attempting to break the cycle that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe dean of my school (School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania), is a leading expert on violence. He gave a presentation in which he shared some statistics demonstrating that the US murder rate is staggering in comparison to other developed countries. He linked this to access to guns. I'll try to get these statistics for you.
Also, his belief is that the underlying cause of violence is economic. We may not always be able to police dangerous "basic human emotions", but perhaps we can do something to address the situations that give rise to them.
I'll try to get a copy of his presentation to you.
Yeah. My understanding is that around 60% of murders are made with firearms, plus you have all of the armed robberies. That's a problem. I don't see any reason for individuals to bear arms and I don't know why guns were ever invented. I don't see any reason to hunt. I don't see any reasons for physical altercations at all. I think it's all ridiculous. But many or most people disagree with me on that. Even my friends who I consider peaceful people that would never harm anyone believe in a right to bear arms. There are purportedly restrictions in place on bearing arms - but I can't judge whether they are working or not. I don't have enough information on it. At the same time, whether someone has access to a weapon or not, if they want to commit a murder, they will probably try to find a way - just not as easy.
ReplyDeleteOh cool. I didn't see your longer comment before i commented. That sounds like an awesome presentation. I hope that the underlying cause is "economic", because that is something I believe can be and should be addressed.
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