Resposibility

[Key]

Mererdog, I can agree to a point with your sentiment, friend. But, I would say it IS beneficial to the rapist to take him off the street. I have a firm belief, and understand it is strictly my opinion, that when a person does harm to another, they also do harm to themselves.

Where is the harm if it isn't recognized by others, much less by himself?

If the person who does harm does not feel damaged or harmed in any way by his/her own act, then only the victim has been harmed.

We can say a rapist is demented or somehow mentally disabled, but the rapist might not feel or think of themselves that way.

[mererdog]

Mererdog, I can agree to a point with your sentiment, friend. But, I would say it IS beneficial to the rapist to take him off the street. I have a firm belief, and understand it is strictly my opinion, that when a person does harm to another, they also do harm to themselves.

The problem, of course, is that getting them off the streets doesn't prevent them from harming others (just limits who they can harm) and requires harming them. You could argue you are causing a lesser harm to prevent a greater harm, but these sorts of harms aren't really measurable.

[cuchulain]

I believe even when a person is mentally disabled that when they harm another, they do harm to themselves. Of course, as a Druid, I see all creatures and beings as interconnected, so when anyone harms another, they harm themselves in return. We are all pieces of society, unless we are hermits who never see other people that is, and if you view pieces of society as a puzzle, say, each person representing a small piece of the picture, then harming another is kind of like scratching the picture, thereby harming the entirety, not just the individual piece. That is my view, anyway. Others are of course free to disagree as they will. Therefor, even if the rapist is unaware that he is harming himself, still he does harm. Or for another example, if a drug dealer doesn't understand his impact on society harms himself, still he harms himself by dealing drugs. If the drug dealer is successful, it seems the crime rates in the area would go up. If the crime rates go up, property values decrease, there are less jobs available in the neighborhood, and more police patrols as a result, which in turn means a greater chance of being caught, which is definitely a negative by the drug dealers standards. So, the more successful the dealer, the more likely to get caught in the end. He may not be aware of the causation, and maybe he deals in a neighborhood he doesn't live in, but I believe the principle is sound nonetheless. And, as Mererdog says, it doesn't prevent them from doing harm to others. While incarcerated, the rapist, or drug dealer, may teach others what they know, thereby increasing the amount of harm done in the net result, because now there are others who understand how to get away with it, so to speak. And if they don't, and are incarcerated, what is to prevent them from teaching others? Still, as I said in another topic, the only thing to do of course is take the best course of action available at the time, and try to minimize unintended consequences.