Mercy vs. Strict Justice

Framework People deserve justice. I will provide many reasons as to why criminals deserve justice rather than mercy. I will start by addressing the issue of crime The Justice system gives parameters as to how people will be judged. Mercy is arbitrary. Meaning that people will disagree to what extent you should be merciful to. This disagreement will cause more chaos than mercy will already be causing, which I will explain in more detail within my arguments. Justice is also the most effective for regular citizens. It prevents future crimes due to citizens fear of punishment. As a result it stops most people from committing future crimes. Recent polls show that 1 in 3 men would rape if they could get away with it. This is a shocking statistic that show why the impacts of strict justice would be greater than the impacts of mercy. We should care about justice as a principle. Justice is essential so that we have some sort of order within society in order to prevent it from falling. Justice prevents us from viewing life subjectively. I am not against viewing certain things subjectively, for example, complimenting your family members. You will obviously be kinder towards them than you will be towards others since they are you family. It is perfectly normal to view your family subjectively. When it comes to governing the country and judging criminals in court, it is absurd to judge them based your views. People will argue over who is right and to what extent somebody deserves mercy when somebody else doesn’t. This links on to a similar issue regarding why we should value justice and why we should care that people are sentenced according to the extent of their crime not based on mercy and subjective views. We should value justice because it keeps our society in order. Criminals do not roam freely around the streets. They are either or jail or are in hiding because they are avoiding punishment. If we are merciful then criminals will freely walk around our streets without any form of punishment. Is this the society that we should be living in? Now I will explain why we should care that criminals are sentenced. If we have no opinion over whether or not criminals are sentenced then you are saying that you wouldn’t mind if a well known criminal moved next door and could do whatever he wants without having to worry about justice. Of course we should care, and for our safety we should be for the justice system. The Logic Of Justice Justice for those who commit acts of wrongdoing is essential, because it generates an air of fear. Logic tells us that criminals that fear the consequences of their actions. There are 5 main purposes of punishment for crime: 1. Incapacitation: A felon in prison cannot commit crimes while imprisoned. An executed felon cannot commit a crime again. 2. Deterrence: The threat of punishment deters people from engaging in illegal acts. 3. Restitution: The felon is required to take some action to at least partially return the victim to the status quo ante. 4. Retribution: The felon harmed society; therefore society (or the victims) is entitled to inflict harm in return. 5. Rehabilitation: The punishment changes the felon in order to make him a better citizen afterwards. (mandatory vocational training, counseling, drug treatment, etc.) These are the reasons we need punishment, i.e. strict justice. Mercy may seem like the more morally compelling option in this situation however how can we ever be moral when we allow others to break our universal morality that gives us the gift of differentiating right and wrong; good and evil? I do not disagree that there are exceptions to this argument, the majority of people are proven to obey are universal morality for various reasons - a major reason being fear of strict justice, which is ultimately good. Now we will look in more depth about the consequences of being merciful in these situations: 1. The criminal has been let free due to the mercy of the court, he or she is then able to commit the same crime and expect the same result. Freedom. There is no lesson being learnt in this scenario and mercy is an indication to the criminal that they are free to do whatever they want to do, exceeding all boundaries such as the law and universal morality. 2. Research strongly suggests that the threat of punishment is the biggest reason as to why people do not commit crimes. It is evident that a poor man would steal if he was given the opportunity to do so.3. If the criminal knows that they do not have to compensate for what they are taking (whether it is physical or abstract, i.e. life), then it is evident that there are no longer any restrictions. 4. Knowing that the victims are powerless and cannot act with strict justice this rids any possibility of there being disadvantages to breaking the law. 5. In this scenario strict justice refers to making sure that the felon receives the correct treatment necessary for their full recovery. Even if they are sentenced, they will commit the crime again without help. The Necessity Of Justice The question remains unanswered as to, why do we need strict justice? Without strict justice society crumbles. As mentioned in my previous contention, without punishment enforced, criminals will roam freely and the government will fall. Taxes can be avoided without payment. Murders can be committed without justice. Theft can happen with no consequences. This is what will happen if society is merciful. If society enforces strict justice then prisoners will receive the death sentence or be punished with prison, tax and / or various other forms of punishment. A society that acts out of strict justice is a safe society and a society that can operate without chaos. Without strict justice governing our lives there is nothing to stop us from doing whatever we like. Mercy may seem like the better option because of love, kindness and forgiveness however we need to understand that when approaching serious issues such as crime we must look upon it from an objective viewpoint. Strict Justice is clearly objective since personal opinion is put aside and issues are looked at from a serious point of view rather than a person one. Mercy is clearly subjective since you are empathising with the criminal rather than looking at it from a professional point of view. Subjectivism is rarely a good way to look at the issues of crime, even for minor offenses because if you let somebody off a minor offense then they know that they have power over you and that you can no longer stop them. Even being merciful in towards somebody that has committed the smallest offenses can lead to blackmail, bribery and threats. For example,Somebody steals a sweet from a shop. You know that they’ve stolen it but because it is a minor offense you decide not to tell anyone. You then see them stealing a phone. You threaten to tell somebody about it but then they blackmail you by saying that if you tell the police that they have stolen a phone, they will tell the police that you knew that they stole something but failed to tell them. Therefore, you will be punished to for not telling the police. Then you are in a dilemma. If you tell, then you will be punished. If you don’t tell, then you risk being punished even more severely since this is a phone whereas before it was only a sweet. If you choose to tell, then you will get into trouble and you risk a retaliation from the thief. If you do not tell, you will live with guilt and could end up in jail for a very long period of time for withholding evidence and information from the police. Now lets see what would happen if you had taken the just option:Someone steals a sweet from a shop. You know that they’ve stolen it so you tell the police. You tell them about it and receive no punishment and have no guilt upon you. I am sure that to my opponent; it is evident that the merciful option was not as good as the just one. http://tinyurl.com...http://tinyurl.com...http://tinyurl.com...