Posted by Shane on July 08, 2003 at 12:42:53:

In Reply to: Sticky Situation posted by Inconvienienced on July 07, 2003 at 15:38:58:

The Irish penal system is in part based on an old English utalitarian system, as opposed to a retributionist one more offen seen in new legislation. The penalities for breach of the older laws are designed to punish with a view to obtaining revenge. The newer penalties are designed to deter offense in the first place. However, there are conflicts. The most notable being the death penalty. Introduced to deter, it did nothing of the sort, as it was applied to people who didn't see it as a detterence eg. terrorists. Take the proposed death camps in America-Cuba, the proposed death camps will be revenge, as the death penality serves no purpose in deterring a suicide bomber.
If there was a death penalty sentence applied to people in Ireland who double-parked, NO-ONE would double park. I don't know the figure for the number of people who die as a result of emergency services being unable to get through traffic as a result of illegally parked vehicles in Ireland, but it was estimated at 300 in the UK. There is no consistancy in the idealogy of punishments in western law because of the inability of the legisature to decide whether to deter or avenge.

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