The internet is such an amazing tool: if you don’t know what something is then ‘Google it!’ Information is at our finger-tips in seconds. This benefit of IT allows us to be educated about topics that we are all connected with – directly or indirectly, as well as to educate others.
I recently spent some time on a website that provides an insight into the considerations that are taken into account when an individual comes in front of the court. It even allows us, as members of the public, to ‘judge and sentence’ someone on the basis of information ‘heard in court’. Our judgement is then compared against the actual decision of the court, while talking us through the various guiding factors that pertain to this crime.
Crime and punishment do have clear, meticulous guidelines. However, we still hear in the press that, on occasions, ‘sentencing doesn’t fit the crime!’ or ‘the punishment is too lenient!’ On other occasions, we hear that so-and-so has received a longer than expected sentence to serve as an example to others, in order to persuade them that crime doesn’t pay. What a balancing act those that meet out the punishment have to play: to what degree is the punishment designed to encourage change in the offender and to what degree is it to send a signal to others to dissuade them from similar activity?
Let alone those within the judicial system, what about myself. To what extent am I level-headed or influenced, responsive or reactive, compassionate or emotional when I hear about crimes committed? Well the website I accesses provided some insight into that. So too will the following story.
A white-haired old Cherokee chief was sitting with his young granddaughter on a rocky outcrop looking out over the plain. He was deep in thought.
After a time he turned to her as said, “There is a fight is going on inside of me, a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, hatred, anger, resentment, arrogance, and selfishness. The other wolf stands for kindness, compassion, respect, integrity, generosity, and empathy.
He then fell silent again. After a short while the granddaughter turned to the old man and asked, “Grandpa, which wolf wins?”
He turned to her and, with a smile that expressed all his accumulated wisdom, simply said, “Whichever one you feed!”
Of course, it is experience accrued over time that allows for clear-thinking in any such situation.
Lord Woolf recently stated, "It has long been my belief that judges should know much more about what happens and the consequence of their sentencing. Of course you wonder what's happening. Having been involved in Strangeways, you then realise just how important our prison system is to the administration of justice and to the protection of the public. You can either use it in a constructive way, or in a destructive way.’
