It’s very interesting to study the differences between legal systems in different parts of the world.

In the US, all crime — no matter what it was, or how minor, or whether anyone was injured or endangered, or even if anyone was actually responsible for it — must be punished. If no specific person is responsible for it, then someone is declared responsible anyway and punished for it. A kid ignores No Trespassing signs, climbs over a fence, and breaks his leg while trying to steal a lawnmower? The kid can actually sue the owner of the property! According to the legal system, the owner is responsible: he should have had a bigger fence, or provided safety netting to catch would-be thieves so they wouldn’t break any bones while stealing from him.

Someone must always pay, whether by money or by jail time. And jails are essentially warehouses, where a person is “put away” for a time. This does nothing to help him become a better person, so that he wouldn’t do whatever he was jailed for again; apparently the only idea is to appease the victims of his crime (or the government) by doing something that hurts him just as much.

In New Zealand, as I understand it, less serious crime is considered a social illness and treated as one would treat any illness: with a regime designed to cure the illness. Criminals are put in prison, but they’re taught a trade there, a way to make a living. The rate of recidivism there is, from what little I’ve read, very low.

I know I’m not the first to talk about this, and I know it will have all the effect of a drop of red food coloring in the Atlantic ocean. I just felt the need to say something.