About that article - yup it's true. We have been that way for as long as I can remember (research wise - i ain't been alive long enough to know) but it has definately picked up start 1990's. We're right up there with the United States and that is saying something considering their crime rate is sooo much worse than ours (once again research + stats).
It's funny because you look around New Zealand and you don't realise really what's going on under the surface. It's all very murky and scary once you start poking inside ppl's minds. Their first response is to punish, never to rehabilitate. To isolate them from society because they're not worthy, not to give them help and teach them to be a better/more productive member of society. We're not a very forgiving bunch even though the legal system came around as a means to abolish "revenge" and "punishment" to a certain degree.
For the reoffenders, or first time offenders of serious crimes the worst thing you can do is isolate them and surround them with like minded "peers". They need to be around people who make them realise the impact their actions have and to see how society - the rest of the society - deals with it and deals in general in an everyday manner after the crime is said and done. That I firmly believe is more of a wake up call to them than prison.
Once again, I am branded a liberal weenie for my views. "I like to hug trees and dance around rose bushes, eating wild berries and running barefeet in the forest .. high on marijuana". Obv I don't know anything about the "real world" and "the way it ACTUALLY functions".
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-07 05:57 am (UTC)It's funny because you look around New Zealand and you don't realise really what's going on under the surface. It's all very murky and scary once you start poking inside ppl's minds. Their first response is to punish, never to rehabilitate. To isolate them from society because they're not worthy, not to give them help and teach them to be a better/more productive member of society. We're not a very forgiving bunch even though the legal system came around as a means to abolish "revenge" and "punishment" to a certain degree.
For the reoffenders, or first time offenders of serious crimes the worst thing you can do is isolate them and surround them with like minded "peers". They need to be around people who make them realise the impact their actions have and to see how society - the rest of the society - deals with it and deals in general in an everyday manner after the crime is said and done. That I firmly believe is more of a wake up call to them than prison.
Once again, I am branded a liberal weenie for my views. "I like to hug trees and dance around rose bushes, eating wild berries and running barefeet in the forest .. high on marijuana". Obv I don't know anything about the "real world" and "the way it ACTUALLY functions".