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Interesting that "an eye for an eye" is a phrase that resonates in the & #39;mainstream& #39; (but not on the Left). Speaking as a criminologist, I& #39;d say this was the biggest single problem in the public understanding of criminal justice. https://twitter.com/Sabrina_Huck/status/1275362971540209665">https://twitter.com/Sabrina_H...
The criminal justice system *is* retributive - it& #39;s much, much too retributive. The excess of retribution leads to "the disproportionate punishment of disadvantaged groups", as @Sabrina_Huck says, but it& #39;s not as if correcting the biases in the system would fix the problem -
- convicted criminals in general are punished disproportionately. While there is a scale (or several scales) differentiating in great detail between crimes of different levels of seriousness (+ or - mitigating or aggravating factors), the lowest rung is very often way too high.
It& #39;s very hard to get the bottom rung lowered, and it& #39;s very hard indeed to get magistrates (who are generally passing the & #39;bottom rung& #39; sentences) to consistently use the least punitive, least coercive, least harmful options available to them.
In particular, magistrates and district judges love the idea of deterrent sentencing - sending a message, making an example, showing they take [whatever] seriously. There& #39;s lots of research on deterrent sentencing, and very little that shows it works.
So we& #39;ve got a justice system which (despite efforts to remedy this) still takes two eyes for an eye on a fairly regular basis - even in the ideal situation where no biases of any sort are involved, just a genuine crime that was genuinely committed.
And then you& #39;ve got a fairly large section of the great British public, utterly convinced that the system is too lenient, and that sentencing doesn& #39;t match crimes to the level of retribution which justice would require.
I& #39;m not sure what anyone can do about this. I don& #39;t think it qualifies as ignorance or misunderstanding - it& #39;s too entrenched and too emotionally loaded for that. I suspect it& #39;s displacement for something else - perhaps the sense that life& #39;s not fair, if that& #39;s not too glib.
But clearly it& #39;s not a "Labour value" in any world I can imagine!
