Barbaric? Yes. Barbaric.

[ambitious_wench]

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

I blame my reaction to this story on my Christian past. That's a good thing, IMO. I know there are folks in the US who agree with this kind of "justice". That scares me.

I'd like to know the thoughts of my readers on this, though. I especially want to hear from the feminists.

Here are some questions:

Will retribution make the victim feel safer?
Does this address the misogyny of the attack?
Should victims be able to set punishment like this?

Comments

[redhead-sue.livejournal.com]

Victims are ruled by their emotions. There's nothing wrong with that, or with letting them express their feelings. However, justice systems should not be based on emotions or vengeance - they should be based on rationality, law, logic. So no, I do not believe in punishments like this. Will it make the victim feel safer? I doubt it, and it won't reverse what happened. I doubt the punishment acts as a deterrent to others, either - this is not the kind of act that I think is done by someone sane enough (or calm enough) to stop and think of the consequences.

Basically this is what I believe: as a society (and here I refer to our own, American society, but also any society that makes laws), we cannot say "Blank is wrong" (i.e., blinding someone is wrong, murdering someone is wrong) and then punish someone with that very same act. It reduces society to the level of the criminals and is completely immoral. There are other, more just punishments.