"A bit of a drift, perhaps"
Not really - and I accept your point to a degree.
Our first instinct is punishment/revenge - from eye-for-an-eye to the grotesque ritual of trial-sentence-imprisonment-appeal-execution that was (and still is in parts of the world - I understand that some on Texas death rows have been there for up to thirty years) capital punishment.
Some of us, once we've had time to reflect, suggest that reform might be a better path and are willing to give it a go - I think that is what has happened to British society, and personally I welcome it.
But in the end, none of this alters the fact that these two were ten years old when they did what they did, and nobody here has even begun to approach the suggestion that they might just be monsters of our making.
Jim Carroll