Al Whittle brings up a couple of examples: some stuff like the Spanish Inquisition and the abuse by a priest of my cousin when he was a kid - just unforgiveable

And he's right - such things are unforgiveable.

I get such things thrown at me all the time, because I'm one of those horrible, unsympathetic, criminal-coddling people who works for jail reform and against capital punishment. The argument of the horror and frequency of crime is indeed a powerful and valid argument, and it must not be ignored - wherever and whenever it happened, and whoever committed the crime. And that argument is particularly strong when the crime was done under the guise of a religion that preaches love of neighbor.

But rational people don't favor crime or criminals, or deny that the crimes were committed. People work for a tempered response to crime not because they favor crime, but because they think there should be limits to the extent a civilized society will go in its response to crime. I think some people have figured out that retribution for crime simply doesn't work. Especially for horrible crimes against children, nothing can be done to repay and repair the damage done. So, all that can be done is to fix the problem so it's unlikely to happen again, and do our best to heal the trauma that was caused.

We can't deny that crime happens - it happens all the time, and sometimes the criminals are people that we know and love. And when the criminals are our own people, it's hard for us to believe the allegations, no matter what amount of proof is provided. Those criminals must be punished, but then I think that most must be given a chance to reform their lives - even though the full price of the crime can never be extracted, and "justice" can never fully be satisfied. And certainly we must do all we can to ensure the healing of the effects of the crime and just compensation to victims.

But if we dwell on crime and expend all our energy extracting payment for crime, we hurt ourselves. And we sometimes end up extracting payment from people who are no more guilty of the crime than we ourselves are.

So, it's an issue that must be explored honestly. I think our primary goal should be to do our best to heal individuals and society and the injury done to them by crime - and trying to prevent such crime from happening again.

When the crime happened long ago, I think our approach must be different. There comes a point in time where nothing can be done, since the evidence is cold and the criminals are elderly or dead. Instead of trying to punish wrongdoers and compensate victims, we must study such crimes to learn how to stop them from happening again.

And although I seem to be in the minority on this, I think it's time that we stop attempting to prosecute people for crimes they committed during World War II. The wrong done was terrible, but World War II ended 69 years ago. Nothing can be done to fix those things now.

-Joe-