The Dilemma of Punishment: When Self-Defense Meets the Law
A city without law will definitely be in chaos. That is why criminals should be punished for their crimes. Prisons serve as a place to rehabilitate these criminals, making them remorseful so as not to commit the same crime again.
From the angle of punishment, no two crimes are given the same kind of sentence. judgment is usually passed based on the gravity of the crime committed. While some serve a few weeks, months, or years, some get as bad a life sentence. As I state, a city or nation without laws in place will most likely end in chaos, as these laws help us know what is right and wrong to do according to the law.
But should any of these crimes be overseen and judgment not be placed on, even when we know that it is indeed a crime, this prompt got me thinking of which crime deserves to go unpunished, at first, I couldn't decide on one, as I believe every crime deserves a bit of punishment to at least rehabilitate the mind of the criminals, and also cleanse the land from more of these criminal act because if one criminal goes unpunished, there is every tendency for others to want to follow same path.
Just this evening, I watched a scene from a movie of how a female who killed a man in self-defense was handcuffed and taken to prison and also faced several trials to know her fate, in her defense, she was almost raped and beaten by this boss of hers, trying to defend herself, she hit his head with the closest weapon she found close to hand which happened to be an alcohol bottle and that was the end of the rapist, though there was no witness even a CCTV to capture the moment, as that would have provided a strong piece of evidence to vindicate her probably, so she spent months in jail still facing trial as the case was always adjourned not until an expert stepped up providing facts that helped get her released.
I found myself feeling a different mix of emotions from anger to bitterness and more pity as I watched the story unfold, in my opinion, I believe those said criminals who only defended themselves from getting killed or traumatized in other aspects, which resulted in the attacker's death shouldn't be punished as it was a case of kill or be killed, rather the real offender have already met their end which is the punishment they deserve for even thinking of inflicting pain to a fellow human and going ahead to implement such plan, sadly, they met their end, still their punishment shouldn't be extended to their victims just like in this movie unless other fishy details are involved, the reason there should be special investigators in every criminology field that helps investigate, prove and unfold cases like this to help vindicate the victim.
This post is inspired by the Hive Learners weekly promptly, week 147, edition 3.
Self-defense should never even be considered a crime. Because if we look at it, the victim may not necessarily want to kill their abuser. All they want is to be free of them. They had to do what they had to do.