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Post by tangent on May 15, 2013 6:31:39 GMT
Teresa May, British Home Secretary, is proposing increasing the sentence for killing a police officer from 30 years to 'life without parole'. articleI don't know what to make of this. Whilst policemen need protecting, it does seem like a political decision rather than a just one. Twelve police officers out of 140,000 have been killed since 2000. I feel every prisoner needs the hope of parole but at the same time the chances of being killed are quite high. Will the change act as a deterrent or is it seen as vengeance?
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Post by Mari on May 15, 2013 6:43:43 GMT
30 years is practically life. Should you get out at 50, what prospects do you have? I doubt it will deter anyone. I read an article once about the deterring power of long prison sentences and execution as practised in the US and basically it has no deterring power. People killing other people, be they cops or civs, usually either plan on getting away or killing themselves afterwards.
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Post by Alvamiga on May 15, 2013 7:38:43 GMT
Yes, I have often seen information about such cases where the perpetrator ends up in an all-or-nothing scenario. When they make the decision to kill, they are not usually weighing it up against a sentence; as Mari rightly says, they usually plan on not serving it, one way or another.
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Post by raspberrybullets on May 15, 2013 8:09:00 GMT
Yeah, I thought the evidence for long sentences and capital punishments had been proven over and over again not to act as a deternet. If anything it sends a message that killing anybody other than a policeman is not as bad.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 8:39:37 GMT
If anything it sends a message that killing anybody other than a policeman is not as bad. That's what I keep thinking. Why is it worse to kill a policeman than a normal person? Is the policeman worth more?
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Post by Moose on May 16, 2013 17:42:17 GMT
I don't have a problem with whole life sentences for very serious crimes but in general I think that people should have a chance at parole - including if they kill a police officer. Quite apart from anything else it is an incentive to behave well in prison. People who are serving life without parole are usually - not always - child killers who have to be kept in isolation and therefore their behaviour in the general prison population is not an issue
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