TRTL,
The removal of the left hand as they do in some arabic country's could go down very well all over the world, as barbaric as this may sound, except we all know the reason for it being the left hand only. It will indeed make the would-be perpetrators think before doing and I can think of a few places that could do with such drastic measures.
Spanky

TRTL, I'm wasn't saying that we should use corporal punishment as a deterrent to serious crime. If you get caught robbing a store, you should perhaps expect a jail term.
As for cutting off a hand for theft, I think I've got a better idea and one that is not so detrimental to the future earning ability of the thief. Let's start with the little finger of the non dominant hand, then, should that person commit another crime, the next finger could be removed, then the next and the next until the unrepentant thief find the courts are beginning on the dominant hand, but I seriously doubt it would get that far. I'm sure after the second or maybe the third digit was missing, the thief would realise that crime REALLY doesn't pay!

Very droll, Aime. Er... that *was* supposed to be a joke wasn't it?

One of the problems that we face with an increasing prison population is that relatively petty criminals that are jailed for say a second or third offence, go into jail with hardened crims. What other tricks of the trade can they learn whilst inside to help boost their income (and reduce the chances of being caught) once they get out.

That said I've worked with people that have been in jail for armed robbery (so fairly hardcore stuff), and they have managed to become pretty good, contributing citizens (although you could always pick that there was something different about them). I certainly didnt have any problems working with them.

If corporal punishment was to be reintroduced in say schools, there would need to be strict rules around what is acceptable, and good monitoring of what went on. Eg you couldnt give the cane to anyone in your own class, they would have to be sent to a particular teacher. Both teachers would then be required to fill out paperwork (which in itself is a reasonable deterrent to any sadistic teacher), which would have to be lodged with the Dept of Education or something like that. That way activity and the reasons for it could be monitored. You could also rotate the "punishing" teacher to reduce the risk of teachers forming an agreeance not to report. Or require punishments to be reported in the school newsletter so that kids had a chance to say bullsh!t that's not right, and parents had some idea about what punishments were dished out and why. It could be done in a way to reduce the chances of abuse to almost nil.

Good ideas Country Gal. I'm sure there are safeguards that can be put in place such as the ones you suggest. The idea of corporal punishment should never be about anybody getting "even." It's meant to be a deterrent and if done correctly, could be a very effective tool to curbing anti-social behaviors.

WHAT A SMALL MINDED BUNCH OF BAST@RDS/B!TCHES