Other things, we want to make more illegal than they already are.....
Child's death raises issues of gun safety, criminal prosecution. Rebecca Elliot, HoustonChronicle.com($$$)
I would argue that the pain of having to bury your child (or in this case, grandchild), and to live every day for the remainder of your life with that pain, is punishment enough.
But it's never enough for the "someone! must be blamed." crowd how demand that there be a criminal conviction and, even better, prison time when horrific accidents occur. Of course, only certain types of horrific accidents, those where items such as guns, knives, automobiles or other items considered 'out' by those who determine such things are involved. For instance, you don't see an outcry to make-tougher laws against driving a train while intoxicated when a large train accident happens.
Sure, you see calls for the engineer to be prosecuted (if there's criminal liability) but no one seriously suggests that the laws need an overhaul when trains are involved. The notable exception being oil trains, but that's more about a hatred and misunderstanding of oil which overrides any love of trains that the self-appointed arbiters may have.
I always try to default to the concept of social good.
It's fuzzy I realize this but, it makes more sense to me than some warped sense of "justice" that is always thrown around. What is the social benefit to imprisoning someone for doing something stupid that creates a tragedy that they and their families are going to have to cope with for the rest of their lives?
This is not like an intentional murder, where clearly there is a social benefit to locking this person away, or just ending them altogether. Or theft, or a robbery.
As America continues to increase in our incarceration rate (we're not the top like some say, because several totalitarian countries are omitted from the count) is there really a benefit to this?
I'm sorry, but I just can't see it. Just like I can't see imprisoning someone who chooses to light up a joint in their living room. (If they get out and drive a vehicle however under the influence that is, and should be, a different matter). More controversially, I'm not a fan of the new Millennial trend of criminalizing bad business decisions. Just because the banks failed does not mean that "someone should be held responsible" from a criminal perspective.
Ironically, many of those who think so also believe in separation of Church and State. Despite this, they want to see the 7 Deadly Sins criminalized. The cognitive dissonance that you have to possess to be involved in today's criminal justice debate is really quite outstanding.
To my way of thinking, a better idea would be to decriminalize mistakes, to allow people to grieve, and figure out how, without assistance from the nanny state, they are going to live the rest of their lives under the guilt of what they have done.
Your mileage may vary of course. Soon however they will criminalize something that you may do.
