Quote:
Originally posted by smoothmoniker
The prime motivation in atonement justice is the reparation for the wrong done. If you steal something, your just punishment is directly in correlation to the value of the item stolen. If you cause a living thing unnecessary pain, your just punishment is directly in correlation to the social value placed on the living thing (we don’t punish for killing rodents, we do punish for setting the neighbor’s cat on fire). This is the principle behind the punishment fitting the crime.
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You make an interesting argument, but it all just boils down to "an eye for an eye." I don't beleive in that concept.
Let me ask you about this: We had a situation in my area a few years ago where a woman was contemplating suicide. She was going to jump off a bridge. This was a pretty major bridge. They closed the bridge for several hours while they talked to the woman. Pretty much everyone agreed that she chose the bridge as a location for getting the most attention. She delayed something like 50,000 people by a couple of hours. If you add up all the time she "took" from these people it comes out to like 12 years. Should she be sent to jail for 12 years?