week 2 / discussion 2 response

 week 2 / discussion 2 response 

Respond to the following 

There is tendency for humans to retaliate, however there is no universal way in which people retaliate. Retaliation described in Shari’a law is described as an “eye for an eye” although the person inflicting the retaliation is not always the victim. There is someone acting on behalf of the victim. People are affected differently when they go through a crime. In the case of murder a family might seek different retaliation in different circumstances. In my personal experience, a family who is close with a victim and interacts with a victim on a daily basis feels differently than a family who had little to no contact with the victim.

The American system provides the ability for retaliation based on the lengths of an individual’s sentence. Though a murderer might not be put to death, at least in California where there is a moratorium on the death penalty, the murderer can be sentenced to life in prison. Depending on the circumstances it can be life without parole, which although the individual is not killed, they are permanently removed from society.

This allows for a family to retaliate but also prevents the family or victim from being the cause of another person’s death. I have dealt with victims who feel guilt over sending a sexual predator to jail for five years and this prevented them from coming forward. The pressure of being the cause of someone’s death, even if it is just from reporting a crime is a terrible weight for a victim who is already suffering.