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.

For something like the example you give, I'd want to pull the trigger myself. I am not saying though that I agree with the death penalty - I definitely don't. Just that the animalistic side of human nature wants to hurt those who hurt us the most. That's very different to the state doing it on our behalf.

Shot dead.

I don't think it's an either or answer. It depends on the crime and the circumstances in which the perpetrator was killed.

For some people, especially those who survived mass killings, the person dying by suicide or cop means you never get answers.

I know people whose sexual abusers committed suicide after being caught, and it didn't help them because the lack of guilty verdict meant they were never "vindicated" in public, and there are people (family members) who blame the victim.

I think witnessing a person being killed, on top of being the victim of a crime, can be even more traumatizing.

It's really hard to say.

I know people whose sexual abusers committed suicide after being caught, and it didn't help them because the lack of guilty verdict meant they were never "vindicated" in public, and there are people (family members) who blame the victim.

Yes, there is that angle, which is why I cheated a bit in my answer and had them die whilst fleeing.

There's the added angle that if I were attacked by a black man in America, if he were shot after/during, I'd really rather my attack didn't become part of prolonged racial tensions.

Yes, there is that angle, which is why I cheated a bit in my answer and had them die whilst fleeing.

That's rarely the case in sexual assault/rape though. More often you know the rapist, and there will always be people who say "NO! XYZ could never have done such a thing, that bitch is lying!" and blame you for their suicide.

I have always been strongly opposed to the death penalty, so I could not be a hypocrite if the case involved a member of my family. I do, however, think that if we are not going to execute murderers, then life should mean life.

I'd rather they were imprisoned with no hope of release.

I would want to know the motive, why me etc. It would be awful to not know. I would see them being killed by the police or by their own hand as them getting away with it.

I wouldn't have a preference as the post trauma would be about me and not about them.

Personally I would bring back the death penalty, preferably in public. I would also re-introduce torture for extreme cases.

Assuming these are deemed unpalatable by woke society, I would accept life imprisonment without parole. The "without parole" part is important as it means we don't have to spend money trying to rehabilitate scum - we are effectively just writing them off as a dead loss to society.

Prisons would be a mixture of solitary confinement (for life) and open dorms, real "no holds barred" affairs. There would be a lot of violence and fighting of course, but the dorms could be hosed down daily.

This would be much more cost effective than the current system. It would be a stronger deterrent and would also be safer for prison officers who would only be in contact with the prisoner at point of arrival.

depends on the severity of the crime but say it was a disgusting crime. i would prefer they died, i dont want the country paying for someone who can be so horrid to live and eat and probably get out in 5 or 10 years whilst the victims suffere forever or have lost there life.

I think I'm against the death penalty, however if my DC were hurt I honestly think I'd be so filled with hate that it would consume me and I'd happily pull the trigger.

I’d like to see them harvested for their viable organs, minus anaesthesia then left to bleed out.

Shoot the bastards dead. Rehabilitation what a complete load of bollocks it doesn’t work and criminals go on to re-offend.

The thing is those people looking for answers you do know it’s not about you? It’s just that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time or the perpetrators wharped mind. You will never get an answer.

A happy medium would be the death penalty - not a quick ending, but a fair punishment when they have time to think about it and see it coming.

If there really is not such a choice, serving life the US way then - where life IS life, not life in the uk which means you are out within a few years.

Western jails are pure luxury when you see the hell holes that exist in the rest of the world, so a short stay there is nowhere near punishment enough for some crimes. And some criminal can physically and biologically never be rehabilitated.

I am sure you can pay someone to rough your abuser whilst in jail to make you feel better too.

I would also re-introduce torture for extreme cases.

I don't think I would go that far, it's a dangerous precedent to accept the concept legally, and who's to say what will be called a "crime" tomorrow?

I'd be more hypocritical, keep it illegal but turn a blind eye when a few "incidents" happen

(NCd for this - I have told bits of this story under a different NC a while ago.)

My DF was crippled when he walked into a bank raid in 1977. Whacked on the back of the head with a fully loaded shotgun. Never worked again.

The scum that robbed the bank were caught an hour later and served 12 years.

They planned to rob a post office on the day of their release - April 1993.

The police were watching them, and as the ram raided the wrong shop (because they weren't just vicious scum, they were thick vicious scum) the police ordered them to drop their guns (all loaded and working).

Scum decided the police were bluffing and tried to shot it out. 3 were shot dead instantly, and one tried to run away - he was shot in the stomach and died a few hours later.

You know what ? Despite all of them dying, my DF didn't magically "get better", and our family remained shattered.

So from someone whose life was never the same after an act of horrific violence that ruined a family, I can tell you that revenge doesn't do a thing for me. The death penalty is barbaric and some of the sentiment of this thread disgusts me. I don't want your "justice" because it's just the same violence scum used dressed up as "noble" when it's not. Violence begets violence. End of.

Not in my - or my families - name. Find another victim to exploit.

@ResidentialBlackSeaBand

I'm so sorry for what happened to your father.

However, the perpetrators were clearly willing to act the same way again. They could in theory have kept causing life changing injuries and death. That their choices ended up in their dying ended that cycle.

They weren't subject to the death penalty, they went out to commit a violent crime that could have resulted in innocent deaths, but in fact, resulted in theirs - which plainly they didn't value very much.

It's not revenge in that case, it's an extreme end of the spectrum of natural consequences. It wouldn't be revenge for me (in fact, a guaranteed life sentence would be just as extreme a revenge for me because I would kill myself if I were institutionalised with no hope of release).

What I would want is irrelevant. It shouldn't ever be up to me. And I don't think dwelling on/delighting in revenge fantasy does any good.

[quote thecatsthecats]@ResidentialBlackSeaBand

I'm so sorry for what happened to your father.

However, the perpetrators were clearly willing to act the same way again. They could in theory have kept causing life changing injuries and death. That their choices ended up in their dying ended that cycle.

They weren't subject to the death penalty, they went out to commit a violent crime that could have resulted in innocent deaths, but in fact, resulted in theirs - which plainly they didn't value very much.

It's not revenge in that case, it's an extreme end of the spectrum of natural consequences. It wouldn't be revenge for me (in fact, a guaranteed life sentence would be just as extreme a revenge for me because I would kill myself if I were institutionalised with no hope of release).[/quote]
Just for the avoidance of doubt I have zero sympathy or regrets for their deaths. The one not shot dead immediately was trying to run towards a mother pushing a pushchair for a hostage and was popping his gun at the police with no care for anyone. The police did their job of protecting the public perfectly. An officer called round a day after and told us what had happened (with more details that shatter the idea of any criminal being a "mastermind"). I was at University, but my DB told me that DF just shrugged, and DM spent the rest of the day crying.

My point is that the deaths of these scum did not a single thing to undo my DFs stoved in skull. The changed man that was my father - from happy parent to (still) living in permanent agony. So to all the cheerleaders for the death penalty - no, no, and no again. It's barbaric beyond belief, even when you do get the right person.

So going back to the OP: If a criminal gets themselves shot dead while running around endangering the public that's just the risk they take. But once caught, then we have to have justice for all, or it's justice for none.

Jail. I don't believe in the death sentence and the police shooting someone without trial would be even worse.

In any case, death is an easy way out. I don't believe in hell or anything, so as far as I'm concerned, the perpetrator's life would just stop and they wouldn't have to account for what they had done or deal with the consequences. I would far prefer that they face a trial, face the prospect of spending a good chunk of their life in jail, and then possibly have to live with some regret/guilt about what they have done.

Residential, I'm so sorry for what your family suffered. Agree with everything you say.

I think the only way you, as the victim, can recover from these crimes is to forgive and move on.

I don't want someone else's life on my conscious, no matter how awful they are and I don't particularly want to pay for them to be incarcerated either. I don't want to be bitter and angry for the rest of my life.

So many awful crimes stem from terrible things that have happened in the perpetrator's earlyife and/or from addiction problems. In my perfect world, we'd sort out support, that actually works, for those issues rather than looking for revenge or punishment.

A civilised country should never allow someone to destroy a life, get a tap on the hand and go back to normal as if nothing happened after a few years.

Not in a million years would that be fair or acceptable.

Punishing someone might not bring back the victim and help the despair of the families, but knowing that someone is prancing around, having fun/holidays and pretending it never happened help even less. Actions must have consequences, even a toddler knows that.

Some crimes are so against nature that keeping some dangerous people locked up for ever, or getting rid of them, is not about revenge at all, it's about protecting others.

So hard to know without going through it, but I'd say let them get shot. Don't want them in this world, don't want to lie in bed thinking they're inside but will be out one day. I also think these people often don't tell you why they did what they did. But maybe you can get some closure?
But in general prisons don't work and are a drain on resources.