The role of evil in the criminal justice system
It is not unusual to hear the police, judges, journalists or any other interested party, describe the commission of certain crimes as evil. The categories of such offences are well-honed, particularly despicable murder or violence nearly always comes top of the list of evil human behaviour.
More particularly, it is sentenced as such. The judge in his sentencing remarks will refer to the “evil” of the offence, for which a lengthy, condign sentence of imprisonment is the only response.
If the Law Commission's recommendations for the reform of murder become law, the criminal justice system will have to grapple with the concept of first and second degree murder, a conviction for first degree murder—the more heinous category—attracting harsher sentences, entrenching a categorisation approach to crime and sentencing, based at least in part, upon how heinous the offence is.
If evil exists as a force which can be quantified, then sending people to prison for committing such crimes should make
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