Good post, Little Hawk. LadyJean, I do like your idea of having the malefactor assigned to disagreeable jobs, especially in a social service capacity, as a possible alternative to complete isolation. That way, he gives back something to society and possibly earns his keep, helping to alleviate the "expense" problem.

Rapaire, I'm afraid I can't agree. That's literally back to the "eye for an eye" thing. Pure vengeance. Although it may not seem so beforehand, oftentimes the aftermath of a successful vendetta has some pretty negative psychological effects on the person or persons who so passionately wanted revenge. Unless they have a pretty vicious streak themselves, most people almost always feel further traumatized. It seems to add a sense of guilt to everything else they've felt as a result of the whole incident. Not good.

Have you ever seen film of people who have just watched the execution of someone who murdered one of their loved ones and whom they sorely wanted to see be put to death? From the expressions on their faces, it's obvious that what they thought was going to be the satisfying experience of watching the person who had killed their loved one "get his" has turned out to be pretty hollow. In fact, rather than looking satisfied, they usually look a little sickened by what they have just witnessed.

Many people don't really understand the concept of forgiveness. Those sages who counselled forgiveness way back when had a pretty good grasp of psychology. Forgiveness is not for the benefit of the person who has offended you, forgiveness is for your benefit. Consider: how often has it happened that someone carries a grudge for years over something that was done to them, agonizing every time they think of it, having it eat them up inside and wanting to get even with the person who did it, or at the very least, have the person acknowledge their offense and show the proper amount of remorse for what they have done. Then an opportunity presents itself and they confront the person—only to learn that the person they've held the grudge against all this time doesn't even remember the incident? Was not even aware they had offended someone? Had the offended one let his or her anger go and had forgiven the person, they would have lived a much happier life all that time.

Forgiving someone doesn't mean that you have to forget. You simply take steps to make sure the person doesn't have an opportunity to do it again. Or in the case of crimes of violence, the moral society's primary function is not to punish the felon, it is to take steps, short of yet another act of violence, to prevent the felon from having an opportunity to commit violent crime against anyone else.

Look at the Israel / Palestine situation: each side maintains (and quite probably believes) that it is retaliating for a previous offense. Like and infinite game of leap-frog. When will it ever stop? Never, considering the "eye for an eye" dictum they both seem to be following. In the meantime, innocent people keep dying violently.

Don Firth