If someone did something awful to you, would you want them shot dead during the incident or to serve life?

[Howallergic]

I've been watching too many crime programmes today and the goal of everyone seems to be to get them to serve jail time. I'd be more of the shoot the bastard variety I think.
Just wondering.
Not thinking about death penalty here.
Just, would you rather them killed in a cop shoot out or to go and serve life?
Say for e.g. for killing your child or something similar.

Definitely dead.

I think it would be easier to move on yourself if they died in the incident. You wouldn’t have months dwelling on court cases etc before being able to move on with grieving and healing.

Dead. A good friend of mine lost her sister a few years ago, she was strangled by her husband who then tried to murder his two children. He got a hefty prison sentence. The arrogant prick has never shown a shred of remorse and is still able to fuck with the children's heads by way of letters. No doubt he'll walk free someday. I'd rather not have to think about him breathing tbh.

@nasiisthebest

Hmmmm I think that it might be easier to get on with your own life if they're dead. Otherwise you might not stop thinking about what they're doing or if they'll ever be released.

But I hope I'll never be in the position to find out.

This is exactly how I feel. If they were alive, I think I would obsess over them.

I’d want them dead. That way they couldn’t hurt me or anyone else again.

Its a lovely sunny day today. Shall we get up and put our big girl pants on?

I believe a gun owner (including police) is more likely to die by their own gun than another

This is the US surely. Gun owners (not criminals) in the UK are surely mostly farmers. I can see someone accidently being shot on a grouse moor or during night shooting of foxes. And the police in the UK don't take their guns home so not sure when they are all shooting themselves.
I wish people wouldn't quote US stats as if it applies here.
Perhaps suicides stats in the UK produce this figure but in that case it has no bearing on a criminal being shot at a scene of a crime.

Most people with a criminal record have a higher than average number of ACEs, due to the UK hugely failing children and only stepping in if their life is at immediate risk we have a huge number of highly traumatised adults receiving zero support

Unfortunately bad parents have human rights too so 'stepping in' is fraught with problems.

If a UK prison id rather they were dead
A US prison is rather they be incarcerated

rehabilitated

I work in criminal justice. UK prisons are pretty easy going for the majority although they're very hard going for people with mental health problems or the vulnerable. The rehabilitation tends to focus on those with long sentences and specific offences such as as sex offenders. The reconviction rates are not good. On a personal level if someone did something really hideous to me or a family member I would want them dead. I would struggle hugely to imagine them enjoying the relative comfort of jail even if it was for the rest of their lives. However, on a more rational level I agree with rehabilitation, education, supporting people to change, helping people to try to compensate for their crimes. For that to be an actual likelihood the justice system needs a proper overhaul- not more prisons, not more privatising, but a psychologically informed, risk based programme of support, treatment and education for the majority.

I believe in the death penalty. It removes evil from society. There is a glib statement that says "No executed felon has ever gone on to re-offend".

Before anyone says, yes, I have witnessed executions (Middle East).

My friend's mum and my friend's aunt (father's sister) were both killed by her father. He got out of jail after about 20 years and went on to remarry and live his life. In my opinion he deserved to die for what he did. He left his child without a mother and took his sister's life before she had even really lived.

If someone raped my dd I imagine if they were shot dead in the act, it would be as terrifying as the rape itself. So no, I would not want that. Part of me would like the opportunity, however, to pull the trigger personally after sentencing but that would likely prey badly on my mind.

Penalties and living conditions for the truly evil should be much harsher.

For the children referred to above, who have negative family support, get involved with the wrong people/gangs, etc, we have to accept that we have to spend more as a society on education, that it isn't all abput qualifications and thst one size fits all comps don't work. More smaller specialist schools that focus on socialisation, sport, life skills and foundation skills would be a start - and run by people with the balls to teach right and wrong and accordance with both the law and a high moral/social code. For example: life is hard if you smoke weed daily and father 4 children with different young women - and for them and thus the cycle perpetuates.

life should be life imo

Dead 100%. I couldn’t live in a world where someone who harmed my child was still breathing. If I caught them in the act I’d like to think I’d be able to kill them myself too. No fucks given about their backstory. That’s not my kids problem and they don’t have the right to ruin a kids life just because their own life was crap.

I'd rather kill them myself if that option was available.

If they were dead you wouldn't get countless newspaper articles about them being released soon or doing x y and z in prison. So for my own personal grief I think I'd find that easier.

If police shot without trials then there would be a lot of innocent people who would die.

I am not against capital punishment for serial killers and child abusers.

Dead.
Unless you catch them at a young stage of development as children (which is woeful in the current uk CP setup), I don’t believe rehab is that effective.

@Howallergic
I can see your view point, but death is the easy way out. There's no suffering when you're dead.
In a super max jail, such as the one in Colorado there is absolutely no human contact, no visits, mail, newspapers, books, magazines, radio or TV.
The cell is a bare concrete cell with a 4x4" window set high up which you can't see out of.
Every day is groundhog Day.
That to me, is the ultimate punishment.
Every single miserable day to reflect how you ended up in hell.

I think what we're all dancing around here is the difference between justice and revenge.

I'm trying to imagine this scenario and hope to God it never happens. If someone did something awful to me my heart says I'd rather kill them on the spot but then of course getting rid of the body is apparently the most difficult bit.

My head says that in police shootouts which thankfully are very rare in the UK I think it's terrible if the perp is either killed by the police or turns the weapon on themselves as they don't face justice in the proper manner, which would be the civilised way of going about such matters.

Taking the question of ethical justice/police murder out of it and purely looking at it from a 'would I rather my attacker died during the attack' point of view (say, they tripped and fell off a cliff whilst fleeing type incident)...

Yes, I'd rather they died.

I'm not one who holds human life sacred and inviolate, and I think that I'd recover better from the trauma knowing that it was impossible for my attacker to ever come near me again. If I found any need to forgive them, I could do that just as easily with them dead.

This, assuming that I've been raped or brutally beaten (not just punched me and nicked my purse)... yeah, I'd rather they were dead. There are seven billion people in this world, a tiny fraction of whom I love and the majority of whom I'll never meet. Human life is just not that special, and the punishment of prison is society's, not mine.

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I think this life is all we have, and it's the most powerful thing you can take from someone - including doing something as life-altering as a brutal attack. (I'm actually suffering the effects of long-term illness, and I resent that enough as it is, let alone some arsehole attacking me!)

I'm not saying I don't understand the benefits of a functioning justice system, nor do I want this to be a society that executes mob justice. I just think that purely on the premise of 'would I feel better if my attacker were dead or in prison' , then yeah, dead suits me fine.

Assuming the person was 100% guilty ie caught in the act I would first want them tortured then slowly killed. I would feel justice had been correctly served.