The Punishment for Crime
Buddhists believe in the Middle Path – the ethic to balance a basic need for law and order with their principles of compassion and forgiveness. Thus Buddhist teachings show no sympathy for physical punishment, no matter how bad the crime.
by Victor Cherubim
( October 20, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) We live in a changing society where almost every whim and fancy of human nature is tolerated and accepted. But it is not so, in many countries and cultures.
In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo recently said: “our constitution respects human rights, but when it comes to sexual crimes, there is no compromise. We are the largest Muslim nation and we have religious norms which have to be obeyed”.
Indonesia has passed controversial laws after fierce debate in parliament earlier this month allowing chemical castration for paedophiles. The “Stop Kekerasan Seksual” campaign has won the day.
“Chemical castration is the use of drugs to reduce sex drive and libido, without sterilisation or removing organs”.
But Indonesian medical profession say it will not work. Chemical castration is not completely irreversible, after release from prison a person can reverse it with hormone therapy. It is against medical ethics and it is against human rights.
In Philippines, another South East Asian nation, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says: “kill all drug dealers” His method of solving the drug war is simple, curb demand and supply by killing off drug dealers. What may happen if as he promised his people that he would look the other way and give law enforcement agencies the power to kill criminals, especially suspected drug dealers?
This 71 year old President is making waves across the world with his borderline methods. What would happen if Philippines is purged of drugs?
In Sri Lanka, we are told smoking cigarettes is at a premium. But Kerala Bedi is allowed to flood in across the Palk Strait and is the talk of the town. Do the medics object to this? Has there been a campaign to stop all forms of smoking?
We have seen and are seeing various types of get tough polices on crime being promoted in different parts of the world.
The Culture of Punishment
Judges have several tools beside incarceration to punish criminals, including probation, fines, restitution, and community service. We know that crimes are punished according to seriousness of the act and often take into consideration criminal history of the individual.
In a sense or in essence, punishment is a “loss of liberty.” But we cannot forget that basic rights must also be protected. Simultaneously, punishment is to deter future crime and to extract retribution.
In the book “The Culture of Punishment,” Michelle Brown goes beyond the prison gates and into the routine and popular engagements of everyday life, showing that those of us who are most distanced from the practice of punishment, tend to be particularly harsh in our judgments.
Where culture and punishment meet in everyday life, on the TV, movies, wars and destruction, we are aroused to seek what Dostoevsky underlined that punishment must fit the crime and not the criminal.
Can you stop the growth of crime?
Victorians in England firmly believed in punishing criminals, but faced a problem what the punishment should be?
Every religion has specific teachings and attitudes to wrongdoing.
Buddhists believe in the Middle Path – the ethic to balance a basic need for law and order with their principles of compassion and forgiveness. Thus Buddhist teachings show no sympathy for physical punishment, no matter how bad the crime.
