James Bulger's mother demands right to find freed killers

[suzywong]

as reported in the \link{http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news1.shtml\news of the world.

Should she have the right?

Discuss

Yes, I am sure that the fact the perpetrators of this crime were ten year old children made it particularly horrific. It seems unthinkable that a ten year old child could do that. My ds is 11 and his head is full of who Chelsea's latest signing is and Yu Gi Oh cards and that's the way it should be.

What I don't understand is why these children seem to inspire more hatred than murderers who are adults. I feel quite the opposite.

could it be because we have, at some deep level, memories of wanting to be violent when we were children, and this case has connected with them?

I agree with sm - surely the fact that they are children means they should be treated with greater compassion and understanding, not less?

I think that the fact the killers were young children inspired real fear in people. And inevitably made people ask questions about the nature of evil.

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i posted this further down the thread. i think you're right soapbox...v uncomfortable to think of children doing this. suddenly makes you think about why anyone does this and the fact that we were all children once.

also no one seems to have posted about how cruel children can be. before they learn to empathise (thro having been empathised with)...pulling legs off flies, picking on people etc

Frankly the whole string-em-up brigade reaction to these two children seems to me to be a really primitive urge to destroy something that inspires fear.

yup

If you dont understand something and fear it then destroy it. It has happened throughout history.

soapbox, i remember hearing about mary bell when i was a little girl (she was at a special unit near where i was brought up, in fact it's where one of the boys who killed james bulger was held for a number of years) and wondered how her life would turn out. i know her "story" broke very badly (and her daughter found out about her mother's past through the dreadful tabloids) when her new identity was discovered, but she has gone on to create a new life for herself in spite of the crimes she was convicted of when she was about the same age as those boys. so why can't we "let" them be treated the same, once they've served their time? maybe it's a sign of the times that retribution is more fashionable than the idea of rehabilitation, I don't know, I find it baffling.
on another note, i was interested to read that Denise Bulger froze when she saw Thompson, I bet she was surprised by her own reaction after all the years of hoping to tell him what she thought of him and she couldn't express those feelings. i've always thought that the schemes where victims met perpetrators of crimes were a good thing, so that the impact of the crime could be witnessed first-hand, but maybe there are some situations which are too fragile and intense to expose both parties to this (even though i'm sure for many it provides what the americans call closure)

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Firstly Donnie, Im not a saddo so wind your neck in. I am entitled to an opinion.
Secondly those who dont like the string em up attitude why post on here as that will be the majority of feeling by people who have feelings.

oh dear

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oh you think so?

Cept our feelings arent governed by violence but rationality.

watch bbc1

wind your neck in: what a delightful phrase, i'm sure donnie is felled by your overridingly superior argument