During the past centuries we witnessed different societies, with different cultures and rules between them.
Many of them, especially in the past, kept their society safe through the use of violence among the inhabitants: differents ways of punishment were created, but also different prospectives about prison sentences.
Nowadays, some people believe that the best thing is to stay in prison for a long time and then returning "to the real world", others think that sentenced people should spend their all life closed in a jail, and some others think that (almost) everyone deserve to receive the death sentence.
My question is about what happens before all of this: does the idea of having severe punishment stop people from commiting crimes? Do strong punishments bring to a solid and balanced society?
Dear Valentina Rudatis , interesting take on an interesting question, my first instinct was to be against long sentences, but I guess being locked away for a long time would be enough of a deterrent for me if I was thinking of committing a crime. Though of course, that would also make me think of ways to avoid getting caught, and also thinking about it makes me think that some people may have very little to lose by committing a crime, hence they may not be deterred.
So after all of the above which may sound a bit incoherent, I'll sit on the fence :) - I'd say that strong punishments as we see them now don't bring about solid and balanced societies, but they can under certain conditions act as deterrents.
Best Wishes,
Haris
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