Just deserts?

Well put, when. Thanks.

It explains but doesn't mitigate. A high percentage of abused children go on to become responsible adults. Those who are so corrupted by their experiences that they become dangerous to others have to comply with attempts to control their behaviour, or be prevented from doing it again by the authorities. Forgiveness doesn't come into it - it rarely has any effect on the likelihood of the offender doing it again, but probably helps some people deal with what has happened to them.

So no, in effect it doesn't mitigate.

I think it is mitigating in the sense that one might find their actions easier to forgive, but to me that doesn't mean their punishment should be shortened. Which leads me to another question: is someone whom you don't (can't) entirely trust (because, for instance, of the long term effects of childhood abuse on that particular person), is that person forgivable?

I feel that I forgive them on one level by recognising that abuse has damaged them so much that they have no proper sense of right and wrong (or at least, not a useful sense, one that stops them behaving in unacceptable ways), but I still think they should be prevented, by losing their freedom, from repeating the offence.

So, I'm back to where I was before: sorry for them in part, but not completely.

Oh sorry Nonu I was just asking what your opinion was of the questions I was considering!

?----

And you think that....???

Glad we are both on the same page !

PENS, that is fair enough !

Absolutely appalling for the woman concerned..not excusing anything in my post. Just asking genuine questions to see what people think Nonu

I feel so sorry for the girl , what a terrible thing to have happened to her !

J08 crossed post..did not see your comment until I posted mine.

When does society decide that a damaging childhood (emotional /physical/ sexual abuse) is not longer deserving of sympathy/empathy/mitigation?

(N.B. I am not suggesting any poster has suggested that)

As a society we become , rightly, enraged when children are abused and ill-treated. We know that for many children this abuse impacts on their ability to feel empathy and to form attachments and is highly damaging. At what age does society think those kids should overcome their past?

Given that we all respond differently to situations..look on here some people are thick skinned and others are more easily bruised by comments... there will be damaged kids who do manage to overcome traumatic childhoods but for some is the damage irreparable? If so is that mitigating?

Sorry! #theusual

No. Not an excuse. What happened to you in childhood doesn't have to affect your behaviour in adulthood. Your feelings yes. Actions, no.

No. Not an excuse. What happened to you in childhood doesn't have to affect your behaviour in adulthood. Your feelings yes. Actions, no.

I can, and do, feel sorry for anyone who's had such a completely fucked up childhood as that.

But I still think it serves him right.

Which means I feel sorry for him for some reasons at the same time as not feeling sorry for him for others.

Honesty can be hard.

Says elsewhere that he started on cannabis at 9, drinking heavily at 11, addicted to ecstacy and cocaine at 13, then taken into care.

What a life! Not an excuse I know.

I don't feel vindictive either but I don't feel sorry for him, whereas I do feel sorry for the woman, both because she was raped and because she is HIV+. Another way of putting that is that I wouldn't wish an illness on anyone but the fact that he may now be HIV+ as a result of a bad act does leave me with the feeling: serves you right. I don't know the woman's circumstances so I don't feel that about her. She may just have been doubly unlucky, as so many people are.

mice's first comment about the NHS picking up the tab illustrates how criminal acts affect the whole of society.

And mine when

j08 all sorts of unpleasant things are a part of human nature. In these circumstances I don't feel vindictive. The normal punishment for rape will do as far as I am concerned.

Sometimes there's a bigger picture that a single event is a part of that has nothing to do with being saintly.

It's human nature to feel glad that he's suffering anguish too. No one's that saintly.

And mine when

when the same thought had crossed my mind too.

I wonder how the woman he raped is feeling, knowng that the majority of the public will think he deserves to get an incurable disease as punshment, and that they see being HIV postive as something nasty and life-ruining, when she has to manage living with that condition, too.