Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.

Do you have some that's really unpopular and most likely will get you downvoted?

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[โ€“] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

I can see where you are coming from but heck, after a criminal is caught, it's not in state's interest to punish him except for making an example out of him so other people won't think of committing the crime.

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  • [โ€“] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Deterence is not a great strategy for preventing crime. Criminals don't actually do much cost benefit analysis before committing a crime; they will consider the chances they have of getting caught, but not the severity of the punishment. Rehabilitation programs are worth considering over punitive justice so long as they are more effective at preventing recidivism, which is certainly an interest for a state.

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  • [โ€“] 4 points 3 years ago

    I do sympathise with that argument but I would argue that loss of freedom is a powerful disincentive. For some crimes disincentive's don't work anyway. If the goal is smaller recidivism rates I reckon you'd get better results treating them well as opposed to poorly. If you don't treat them like people you can't expect them to act like people.

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