This is just pure moralism that doesn’t engage with my argument. If you want my opinion though, I don’t think he should have been executed.
O’Bryan knew about capital punishment in his state’s legislation and probably took it into account like almost all murderers do. It did not prevent him from killing his son. You are making my case that the death penalty does not prevent murder. There are statistics from all over the world to back this up. Homicide rates are not at all well correlated with the severity of punishment. They are much better correlated with education and poverty rates.
What you are doing is this: You are taking one rather ugly case and using it to justify the status quo or populist sentiment. What if I talked about the five times a trans person attacked a woman? Does that justify how trans people are treated, how they are looked upon with doubt and disgust in this day and age? No. There are cases where whole families are doing well organised welfare fraud. Does that justify the rabidness with which states treat people in need – like significantly lowering payouts when a family member starts menial work? No. Do these couple of cases of welfare fraud deserve the attention they’re getting? I don’t think so.
What if I talked about the five times a trans person attacked a woman?
“Attacked?” So we’re talking assault and/or battery, which is a jailable offense? I take it these five were convicted of felonies and spent some time in prison? Does prison prevent assault? If no, why do we do it at all?
Your moderation history and name make a lot of sense with the positions you are taking. What the hell is going on there… Like holy balls man, shame on you!
It does not matter! You are not engaging with the argument I was making. I was talking about people conflating specifics, one-offs, and so forth, with the mean and the median among other things. You are derailing the discussion here.
Let’s get to the point about why prisons exist. Prisons and psychiatric institutions share two to three distinct roles.
Containing individuals that pose a danger to themselves (which currently works so-so) or others (which currently works so-so).
To make working people as terrified as possible of becoming part of the lowest rungs of society. Suicide rates in prisons are high! Employment after spending time in prison very unlikely. Many unhoused individuals are former prisoners and often times they are unhoused because they spent time in prison. There is a reason why parents tell their kids to be good in school and behave well, otherwise they might end up in prison or on the street. Prison is one of many methods to condition complacency in the face of restaurant owners ordering their staff to clean up blood in lavatories with minimal protective clothing and workers getting screamed at for not completing concrete pours fast enough.
This doesn’t really count as much but these institution are supposed to rehabilitate individuals. Though it can be argued that locking people up for that is not strictly necessary. And rehabilitation often means becoming a “productive” member of society, not a healed one.
This is just pure moralism that doesn’t engage with my argument. If you want my opinion though, I don’t think he should have been executed.
O’Bryan knew about capital punishment in his state’s legislation and probably took it into account like almost all murderers do. It did not prevent him from killing his son. You are making my case that the death penalty does not prevent murder. There are statistics from all over the world to back this up. Homicide rates are not at all well correlated with the severity of punishment. They are much better correlated with education and poverty rates.
What you are doing is this: You are taking one rather ugly case and using it to justify the status quo or populist sentiment. What if I talked about the five times a trans person attacked a woman? Does that justify how trans people are treated, how they are looked upon with doubt and disgust in this day and age? No. There are cases where whole families are doing well organised welfare fraud. Does that justify the rabidness with which states treat people in need – like significantly lowering payouts when a family member starts menial work? No. Do these couple of cases of welfare fraud deserve the attention they’re getting? I don’t think so.
“Attacked?” So we’re talking assault and/or battery, which is a jailable offense? I take it these five were convicted of felonies and spent some time in prison? Does prison prevent assault? If no, why do we do it at all?
Your moderation history and name make a lot of sense with the positions you are taking. What the hell is going on there… Like holy balls man, shame on you!
It does not matter! You are not engaging with the argument I was making. I was talking about people conflating specifics, one-offs, and so forth, with the mean and the median among other things. You are derailing the discussion here.
Let’s get to the point about why prisons exist. Prisons and psychiatric institutions share two to three distinct roles.
Containing individuals that pose a danger to themselves (which currently works so-so) or others (which currently works so-so).
To make working people as terrified as possible of becoming part of the lowest rungs of society. Suicide rates in prisons are high! Employment after spending time in prison very unlikely. Many unhoused individuals are former prisoners and often times they are unhoused because they spent time in prison. There is a reason why parents tell their kids to be good in school and behave well, otherwise they might end up in prison or on the street. Prison is one of many methods to condition complacency in the face of restaurant owners ordering their staff to clean up blood in lavatories with minimal protective clothing and workers getting screamed at for not completing concrete pours fast enough.
This doesn’t really count as much but these institution are supposed to rehabilitate individuals. Though it can be argued that locking people up for that is not strictly necessary. And rehabilitation often means becoming a “productive” member of society, not a healed one.