Indeed one would rather that twenty guilty persons should escape the punishment of death, than one innocent person should be executed. Sir John Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Angliae, ch. 27 by way of Ragbag of Legal Quotations compiled by M. Frances McNamara, 1960. I think the first duty of society is justice. The distinction between crime and justice is no greater.
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves.
What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Which Will it Be . While the Internet and other information technologies are bringing enormous benefits to society, they also provide new opportunities for criminal behavior. The Challenge of Unlawful Conduct Involving the Use of the Internet . The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.