The Human Rights of Child Killers.

[thir]

[QUOTE=IAN 2411;931020]REVENGE... Wikipedia,
Although revenge resembles some conceptions of justice, vengeance is usually depicted as more injurious and punitive as opposed to being harmonious and restorative. Whereas justice implies actions undertaken and supported by a legitimate judicial system grounded upon a foundation of ethics and morals of the authority recognized by the victims and usually the wrongdoer, revenge implies actions undertaken by an individual or narrowly defined group outside the boundaries of acceptable judicial or ethical conduct whose goal is to force a wrongdoer to suffer the same or greater pain or loss than that which was originally inflicted to the victim(s).
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So, the only thing difference between vengence and justice is that vengence is private, and justice is public? So all official laws are just, by definition? And always accepted?

I kind of feel that there is more to that word (justice) than that. It was a surprise to me when I first discovered that to many people 'justice' mean punishment. Or maybe rather 'just punishment'. To me it is wider concept than that, more about about a 'fairness', or a righting of a wrong.

You say that an action is 'justified' if you feel it is right, and 'unjustified' if you feel it is wrong. to get justice can also mean to have a wrong righted.

Any takings of a definition out there? It had a direct bearing on whether or not some kinds of crime should be punished harder or not.

[Thorne]

One thing the criminal justice system is NOT is just. A father shoplifting from a grocery store to feed his starving family should NOT be treated worse than a Madoff who ripped off millions, if not billions, of people's hard earned money. Yet Madoff gets a country-club prison while the dad gets hard time. Putting someone away for 10 years for possession of marijuana while a DUI who runs over a kid gets a suspended sentence isn't justice, either.

To my mind, justice means making the criminal repay the victim, where possible. This doesn't necessarily mean going to prison. It also doesn't mean letting those who can afford it get away with crime. And sometimes it means killing the criminal to protect society.