CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Living together in well established communities has also meant the incidence of crime, or the fact that the breaking of the rules established for communal living, has increased, which has, in turn, meant that punitive measures of various sorts have become the norm. The nature of these punitive measures have changed over the years becoming more humanitarian and less vengeful. One consequence of this trend has been consideration of the individual circumstances of each crime rather than a ‘ one prescription fits all’ approach. Undeniably, greater justice is achieved by considereing each case individually rather than lumping things together.

The personal experiences and background of the perpetrator of any crime are also a factor and determine the type of person an individual becomes and should therefore be studied before sentence is passed. For example, a freshman student at Eskişehir university first stabbed and then slowly drowned her pet cat and was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for mistreating an animal. Yet killing and torturing animals is the sign of  sociopathy. The background of this person was completely disregarded. We do not know if this was her first crime against animals; probably not as she is a university student. Mistreating animals is only the first step; this person will most probably move on to murder. The question is not whether she will or not; it is when she will. Similarly, genuine regret is often not distinguished sufficiently from play acting. A third consideration would be past suffering, abuse or mistreatment. A lifetime of physical and psychological abuse can do untold damage to an individual psyche and a violent crime committed by such an individual should not be considered on a par with that of the average cold blooded killer. In short, real justice is only possible when the full picture is considerted; just skimming the surface may satisfy some but it is not fair.

To sum up, a comprehensive picture of the circumstances of the crime as well as the perpetrator including the factors that made him the person he is should be taken into account if justice in the real sense is to be metted out.