Not only is technology evolving with the times, so is crimes. An intelligent criminal can use Facebook to stalk a victim as easy as a friend request. Skills with computers can allow people to print out fake IDs, security passes, even police IDs. They can then use these for anything from robbing a bank, to gaining the trust of a victim. This means that not only must we evolve with the times, I believe in the case of punishment, we should devolve, and I’m talking over five centuries. The punishments must be harsher not in time, but in impact.
Humankind is not led by thoughts of doing the “right thing,” but rather by more basic instincts – greed, fear, personal gain. While it seems harsh, there is one way to stem the tide of murderers, rapists, peadophiles and other scum plaguing our streets, impacting people from all walks of live, from toddlers to the elderly, and that way is fighting these criminals with psychological force.
To achieve this I believe that medieval punishments for these crimes must be implemented against those charged with major crimes such as murder or pedophilia. The punishment given to those accused of pedophilia or rape was to have a red-hot jaw attached to their genitals, and they were subsequently torn from the body. Needless to say, the occurrence of these harder crimes were scarce in the medieval times, due to the fear of what fate would befall them were they caught. Albeit a lot of people were unjustly accused in those times, however these harsher punishments combined with the high level of forensic and psychological knowledge we possess in this day and age will pose a formidable weapon in the war against crime.
The death penalty should be avoided as it simply provides the criminal an easy way out to avoid serving their punishment. The time of the sentences should not be increased overall, but rather an additional medieval punishment should be applied at the beginning of the sentence. While this may seem barbaric, when stacked up against the crimes that have appeared before the courts such as Jeffery Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and posing a realistic chance of preventing these crimes, it doesn’t seem so inhuman, rather it seems quite diminished against the acts these people have committed. Some have inflicted torture far worse on their victims, for their own pleasure, or profit. It’s time to make a stand against these people, and make it known that society does not accept them, and will severely punish them for such actions.