Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Culpability for crime

My e-mail contribution to a discussion on radio today (prompted by this report);

Regarding P rendering people not responsible for their criminal actions, I find the distorted logic of legal manipulators quite repugnant. But it is only an extension of similar ideas like, people who have had bad upbringings are not culpable. Or people whose ancestors had their land stolen are not culpable. I recently read Nigel Latta's very compelling book, Into The Darklands. He concludes that some criminals have had childhoods that make you weep for them BUT there is still a thing called free will. People make choices - good or bad - that only they are responsible for.

Law making and law enforcement need to recognise the existence of free will. Everybody knows right from wrong because nobody likes having their possessions taken off them, or being bashed about the head or sexually assaulted, actions that seem routine as a consequence of abusing P.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If taking P is an excuse for crime, then can the drink driver make the same claim about alcohol?