JC> And cemeteries are filled with victims who's only "crime" was being in 
he
  > wrong place at the wrong time. Not to mention the victims that will 
_never_
  > forget. I would be willing to bet that the little ten-year old brat that 
wa
  > part of the team that mugged me about ten years ago in downtown Seattle 
has
  > long forgotten all about me and the crime he committed that night. But, I
  > will _never_ forget the fear I felt as his older partner held what 
appeared
  > to be a knife at my throat.
You are right, of course, about the agony of being a victim.  I've been
there often enough to know.  I, too, have had a knife held against me.
I have been robbed and I have been raped.  I have a brother who was
murdered. My husband's best friend from high school was murdered.  I
know that the terror and the grief of being a victim lasts far longer
than anyone who hasn't been there can imagine.  When I westled with the
whole idea of capital punishment, and chose against it, it was with full
awareness of a victim's feelings.
I also have seen, up close, what happens to people who are victimized by
the justice system.   The terror and the grief from that also lasts far
longer than most of us can imagine.
Interestingly enough, I don't believe that increased use of capital
punishment in this country *would* decrease crime.  I live, and work,
very close to some young adolescent criminals.  In many cases, they
simply don't believe there is any possibility they will actually get
caught.  That will always happen to someone else.  And, even though
capital punishment may not happen a lot in the official legal world, it
happens on the streets, with crime territory assassinations.  I've heard
kids say, "If I keep selling these drugs, I'll be dead by 16", and mean
it; and yet they keep selling.  It's been described by many as the lure
of the quick wealth.  I don't see it that way.  I think it's the lure to
the adrenaline rush; and a genuine not caring at all, not about others,
not about themselves.
I've also seen kids turn their lives around, and, usually, the turn
around has happened because the kids have suddenly started caring.  Why
they start caring varies from kid to kid.  In at least one case, it
*was* punishment.  The kid had believed he would never get caught; and,
if caught, would never get punished.  He got caught, spent time in jail,
got raped, etc., and decided, "Never again!"   But most kids who get
caught up in the prison system are made worse by it.  I know one kid
whose life turned around when his close friend was killed in an auto
accident. I think that death supported his own mortality.  But the
deaths of strangers in auto accidents had *not* have that impact on him.
Just because strangers died did not mean *he* would.  I know one kid who
turned his life around when somebody bought him a camera, and taught him
how to use it.  That camera made him *somebody with a future.*  I know
another person, not a kid now, though he was when it happened, who had a
conversion experience to pentacostalism; was overcome with a sense of
his own guilt and his *need for redemption*, and who is now a warm and
loving adult.  Because the turnarounds have been *so* individual, I
don't have a group theory as to have to create them.
I do know a person who is working very successfully with young
pre-delinquents and small time juvenile offenders, which, by the way, is
an entirely different ballgame than working with the more hardened
juvenile delinquent.  His theory is that kids who are prone to go bad
have to be kept too busy to have a chance to get really bad until
they've grown up enough to care.  He supports military school, because
of the combination of discipline and high activity level in most
military schools.  I don't know if he's right or not.  Sometimes I think
this man is successful because of the sheer force of his charismatic
personality, and not because of the activities he does with the kids.
                             Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ You are the only person who thinks in your mind.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.1
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