Punishment

If a person commit a crime of serious nature like murder or rape in his\her youth and it goes unnoticed till his\her old age. Now after so many years when that particular person is totally changed. Should that changed person be punished for whatever he\she did years back ?

Originally posted by: Morning_Dew

If a person commit a crime of serious nature like murder or rape in his\her youth and it goes unnoticed till his\her old age. Now after so many years when that particular person is totally changed. Should that changed person be punished for whatever he\she did years back ?

Absolutely, if you are responsible for a crime you must be punished for it. Apart from punishing the guilty, it also allows the victim to move on.

With DNA we are seeing more and more ciminals arrested for crimes they had long thought they had gotten away with.

Originally posted by: Morning_Dew

If a person commit a crime of serious nature like murder or rape in his\her youth and it goes unnoticed till his\her old age. Now after so many years when that particular person is totally changed. Should that changed person be punished for whatever he\she did years back ?

Treat it like a debt.. Lets say you owe somebody something and 20 years later u meet them without haveing paid the debt.... its upto teh person to write it off,.... society as a whole cant write off things.. so some penitence is due.

Originally posted by: Morning_Dew

If a person commit a crime of serious nature like murder or rape in his\her youth and it goes unnoticed till his\her old age. Now after so many years when that particular person is totally changed. Should that changed person be punished for whatever he\she did years back ?

I dont know...I'm kinda torn on this one. One part of me wants to say absolutely, punish the person for whatever they did back in their youth...because a crime is still a crime and the person ought to be punished for their crime just like any other criminal. But then the other part of me wonders what good the punishment would serve. Isnt the whole point of a jail sentence for the person to repent over their crime and to emerge a changed person when they are finally released from jail? As for hanging the person for the crime they commited in their youth, if the criminal is already old and at the end of their lifetime by the time they are noticed for their crime, then what's the point of hanging or electrocuting someone who will die in a couple of years of their own accord anyway? I know how this sounds. It's almost as though I'm supporting criminal activity. 😕 I guess this just isnt one of those questions that has a yes or no answer. I also think whether or not the person is punished ought to be at the discretion of the person who has suffered the injustice...the person who was raped or the family of the person who was murdered...if they have forgiven the criminal and moved on with their lives, and he is now a changed man, then what can be gained by the punishment? If on the other hand, they still want justice, then they have a right to demand it and insist on sending the man to jail despite the years that have gone in between. So I'd say, leave it at the discretion of the victims of the crime.

Originally posted by: ~globetrotter~

I dont know...I'm kinda torn on this one. One part of me wants to say absolutely, punish the person for whatever they did back in their youth...because a crime is still a crime and the person ought to be punished for their crime just like any other criminal. But then the other part of me wonders what good the punishment would serve. Isnt the whole point of a jail sentence for the person to repent over their crime and to emerge a changed person when they are finally released from jail? As for hanging the person for the crime they commited in their youth, if the criminal is already old and at the end of their lifetime by the time they are noticed for their crime, then what's the point of hanging or electrocuting someone who will die in a couple of years of their own accord anyway? I know how this sounds. It's almost as though I'm supporting criminal activity. 😕 I guess this just isnt one of those questions that has a yes or no answer. I also think whether or not the person is punished ought to be at the discretion of the person who has suffered the injustice...the person who was raped or the family of the person who was murdered...if they have forgiven the criminal and moved on with their lives, and he is now a changed man, then what can be gained by the punishment? If on the other hand, they still want justice, then they have a right to demand it and insist on sending the man to jail despite the years that have gone in between. So I'd say, leave it at the discretion of the victims of the crime.

Looks like everyone here subscribes to "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." How about forgiveness? All religions advocate that.

Don't you think the person that perpetrated the crime in their youth carried the pain and the guilt all through life? Maybe it was that very same guilt that drove that peson to fess up after all those years? The victim or the victim's surviving family, if it was a murder, may just find closure in the confession. There are many real cases as this scenario all across America. Time has a strange way of healing even the worst wounds.