by Foxbaron

Created on: August 19, 2007

This is a fairly true statement but like everything else in life there are exceptions.

I think you have to look at the severity of the crime, the character of the individual and the circumstances that led the person to commit the crime.

There are actually times when a person is in the wrong place at the wrong time. An example of this would be a situation where a person is in a car with friends and the driver of the car gets pulled over for an infraction of the law and ends up being arrested for being intoxicated or having an outstanding warrant. The police will impound his car for safekeeping and in the process they inventory the vehicle and find drugs hidden under a seat. The passengers in the car can all be charged with possession of the drugs as constructive possession. Doesn't matter that they didn't know the owner of the car had it in there. Now the passengers all have criminal records and are labeled as criminals. This does not mean they will always be a criminal.

Another example is when a man steals food because he has no money, no job and his kids are starving. Yes, it's wrong but it doesn't mean he's going to always be a criminal it's just that circumstances have pushed him to his limits and he does what he feels he has to do for his family to survive.

Another good example would be a father who kills a man because that man molested and killed his three year old daughter. Is this a career criminal? I hardly think so.

Like I said I think you have to weigh all the facts.

Now if you have an individual who has several arrests for similar or a variety of crimes then you are probably talking about a career criminal. They'll clean up their act for a while but given the opportunity they will violate the law again. They do it because it's easier than working every day for a living.

People involved in serious criminal activity such as murders, rapes, armed robberies, burglaries, felony assaults, and crimes of opportunity will always be criminals. There is no such thing as rehabilitation. A person doesn't commit further criminal acts because the costs are not worth it to them, not because they have suddenly seen the light. In the old days when a person was sentenced to ten years or so they did the time. Get caught more than once and you spent a good portion of your life in jail. Those that got out and did no more crimes didn't stop because they somehow got rehabilitated they quick committing crimes because they were too damn old and tired.

The only criminals who will never ever change their behavior are sex offenders. What compels them to do what they do I'll never understand. There is no so called cure or change in behavior and quite frankly I don't care if I ever understand why they do what they do. IF we don't have the guts to kill them then we should at least make sure they never ever walk our streets again. They should be given only one strike and then they are dead or imprisoned for life. NO EXCEPTIONS.

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